Danzo's Twisted Will
by FrankCharlegm
Summary: When the hokage is charged for sending shinobi on suicide missions, who will take up the title? and what will happen to Tsunade? NaruSaku, Danzo centric, Lemons come later.
1. Chapter 1

-NOTE- Hi! I guess I should introduce myself, I'm Jon, or Jongygy, and I'm a new writer. This will be my first story, as it will be with my partner and beta reader IMyoIMYO. This will be a NaruSaku, but the plot will revolve around Danzo, and maybe have a little fluff for other pairings. I'm not quite sure how much Japanese I'll be able to put in, but I'll do my best. Reviews would be great, but I'll continue the story regardless of them. There may be a sequel to this story.

"speech"  
'Thought'  
**"Kyuubi or inner Sakura "**

**Disclaimer:I don't own Naruto, and I'm doing this for free.  
**

Danzo's Twisted Will**  
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"...and with that, I accept the position of hokage!" Tsunade proclaimed, shooting a glance at Naruto as the shinobi and villagers gathered there erupted in a frenzy of cheer.

"Hehehe, So the old hag took the job, eh?" Naruto snickered, earning a smack to the back of the head.

"Awww, Sakura-chaaan, what was that for?" said Naruto, now looking towards his pink haired teamate. Seeing her cold glare, he immediately regretted his words.

"Baka! Show some respect for hokage-sama!" Sakura screamed, before turning slightly to Sasuke in determination to see approval. He grunted softly in response, turning away from the female.

From Naruto's strange perspective, held firmly by the collar and hovering dangerously over the edge of the stadium wall, he craned his neck to see the one he saw as the 'most beautfullest' person in the Ninja World. The blonde knucklehead smiled warmly, despite his position. He only hoped someday that affection was his, and knew he would return it.

Once the pinkette saw the cold glint in her crushes charcoal eyes, she whimpered, pulling Naruto back onto the platform they shared. She glanced Naruto's way, but then snapped her head fully in his direction, peering at his dazed and loving expression. She blushed slightly, knowing that Naruto was devoted entirely to her. "What will we do with you, Naruto." Sakura asked herself.

Naruto turned away, confused, from the girl he loves, to his sensei. "What are you gonna do, Kakashi-sensei?" he asked.

The jounin slid his hand into his kunai pouch, digging out his prized possession. Revealing it to the genin, he giggled out an answer. "Porn."

The blonde shinobi rolled his eyes, before proclaiming his departure to his oasis, Ichiraku Ramen.

Kakashi and Sasuke sent each other impatient glances, and team seven jumped away from the village stadium. Naruto cocked his head in Sasuke's direction, quickly catching up with the raven-haired boy. "Where you going now, Teme?"

"I've got to train, I'm not Powerful enough!" Sasuke yelled in reply, subconsciously forming a chidori as he ran off towards the nearest training grounds. Naruto shook his head. The boy he called rival was always training, determined to surpass his brother.

Sasuke's evil older brother had come to the place where Naruto and his teacher, the toad sannin and super-pervert Jariaya stayed. Sasuke, in a stroke of bad luck, happened to be there as well, and his brother Itachi quickly pointed out Sasuke's weakness.

Since then, the boy Naruto thought of as a best friend has been cold, consumed by hate and darkness. Naruto stopped in his tracks, shook out of his thoughts. He stared at the faces carved into the mountain before him, enjoying the solemn silence of the hokage monument. He grinned at the previous hero's of Konoha, before shouting his goal to be hokage to no one in particular. Naruto sustained his grin as he bounded off in search of ramen.

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The silver haired jounin strolled casually, His nose pressed to the pages of the latest icha icha volume. "...then Kenta leaned into Aiyaka, planting kisses on her face and upper body, until finally coming to the lush, soft mounds..."he mumbled, stopping suddenly to sense a familiarly high chakra level before him.

'Hm? hokage's ANBU?' he questioned, looking forward lazily.

The hooded shinobi spoke through his porcelain mask, choosing to ignore the question. "Hatake Kakashi, hokage-sama demands your immediate attention. Gather your team, and report to her immediately." he spoke, relaying the hokage's message to the scarecrow shinobi.

Kakashi took off, speeding for the place the unpredictable shinobi frequented. he hopped off the roof of a low building, peering into Ichiraku's.

The jounin walked in, and scraped a stool across the floor to where Naruto sat, devouring the last few noodles of his thirteenth bowl of the beautiful substance. Kakashi sighed, how could he eat so much of one type of food?' He answered himself, however. 'The boy is hated, kicked out of almost every restaurant. He eats like this because he doesn't know when he can eat next.'

"A miso bowl for me, thanks" Kakashi said, putting the depressing thoughts out of his head. He gave hid one eyed smile to the girl across the counter. Ayame walked off into the back of the shop, to give the order to her father, who was frantically mixing ingredients for another batch of Naruto's soup.

Naruto glanced up from the side of his bowl, before setting it down with a loud clang and turning to speak to his Jounin-sensei."Hey Kakashi, what are you doing here!" The blonde screamed, turning to face the older man.

"Not. So. Loud." Kakashi winced, but then shook it off as Ayame set the steaming bowl down. Kakashi proceeded to wolf down the soup, while informing the blonde genin of the current situation. "Im here because Hokage-sama requested our presence. You're to find the rest of the team, and meet me at Hokage Tower."

Naruto glanced up at him, shocked by the tone of the usually laid-back Jounin. "A-alright, ill get on that right away" he choked out. "Wait, where are you going, sensei?" Naruto asked the older shinobi.

Kakashi mumbled something resembling hokage, and then vanished in a swirl of leaves, leaving a confused Naruto to get his bearings. He didn't stay off balance for long, as a thought came to mind, putting the whiskered boy in high spirits. A fox like grin crept onto his face. Naruto dropped a the money for his meal on the counter and thanked Ayame for the food. He then walked outside with the grin on his face, his arms slung carelessly behind his head. 'Im going to find Sakura-chan first, and spend some time alone with her.' he thought, in pure bliss at being alone with the person he loved.

'Hm, maybe she's with Ino?' Naruto mused as he raced around the village, trying to spot Sakura. "Hah! I wonder what granny wants our team for anyway!" Naruto thought out loud. He regretted it, because of a certain Uchiha who overheard his hollering while brooding. Sasuke leapt onto the street where his blonde companion traveled, grunting a greeting his way.

While Naruto ran forward, raking his brain for a thought to where his pink haired friend might be, a familiar grunt shook him violently out of his thoughts, making him trip over himself, sliding across the dusty road face first. He immediately got up in arms, looking for the Uchiha troublemaker. "Sasuke!" he yelled, seeing his friend and rival walking loosely towards him.

"Sasuke! Why now of all times! I could have made Sakura-chan love me!" Naruto pouted.

"Hn. I wouldn't mind, usuratoncatchi, but I don't think a dobe like you has a chance." Sasuke said, smirking the whole time.

"Teme!"

"Dobe!"

"Gah! We have no time for this. We need to find Sakura-chan and meet up with Kakashi and Tsunade-baachan." Naruto stated, dismissing the argument with a wave of the hand.

"Hn. I saw her heading north a while ago." Sasuke said, sparking an idea in Naruto's mind.

"Oh! North! That's where her favorite garden is, lets go!" Naruto shouted happily.

He and Sasuke started off, running to the place they assumed Sakura was. Sasuke couldn't help glancing at his rival, seeing him getting worked up at the thought of seeing the female of their group. He couldn't understand why Naruto becomes so strong thinking of the kunoichi, after seeing him take on Gaara, determined to save her from the sand monster.

"Naruto, how are you so str..." he started, but realized that Naruto had pushed ahead of him. 'Maybe, just maybe, hate isn't the key to power.' he thought, pushing the constant thoughts of his older brother from his head. The Uchiha cracked a small smile, before pursuing his friend.

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Sakura Plopped down in beetween a row of tulips, deep in thought. She was depressed, realizing that now, a relationship with Sasuke was farther than ever. She had tied with Ino in the chuunin exams, and considered that worse than a loss. how could she impress him by losing? 'Hm, he seems more... distant lately. I don't quite understand why, but I think Naruto may know.' Sakura thought.

The pinkette flopped down on her back, looking at the passing clouds. 'no matter what, Sasuke will be mine.' She said, obsessing over the dark genin.

Sakura heard incoming footsteps and pulled herself up, looking around to see what was coming her way. Ever since Orochimaru attacked, guard has nearly doubled to support the rebuilding village. No, it could'nt be an enemy. "Sakura-chan! Hey, come here!" shouted Naruto, smiling from ear to ear, ahead of an indifferent Sasuke, staring blankly at the sky with arms folded in front of him. Sakura hopped to her feet from the previous sitting position, and walked over to her teammates.

"Hi Sasuke-kun." Sakura greeted as cutely as possible, looking down and batting her eyelashes. Sasuke scoffed, amused by her attempts. Naruto looked dumbfounded. "um, Sakura-chan, I called you." he said, trying to snap her gaze from Sasuke.

Sakura looked at Naruto, with fire in her eyes and venom dripping from her voice. "What is it, Naruto?" she said darkly, stepping forward threateningly to ensure he gives the right answer.

"D-don't hurt me, Sakura-chan. Tsunade-baachan wants us." he said, quivering from fear at the pinkette before him. Naruto always found it strange. He could bad-mouth the strongest of foes, but a fierce look from his teammate could make him nearly soil his pants.

"Oh, she does?" Sakura asked, completely changing from her earlier mood.

"Yeah, and Kakashi-sensei went on ahead. We should hurry." Naruto urged, Wanting to find out what was so important as soon as possible.

"Well, lets go then." Sakura agreed, running ahead of the two boys. Sasuke and Naruto met each others glances, before rushing to catch up with Sakura. The trio ran across rooftops, speeding towards the center of Konoha, where Hokage Tower stood.

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Kakashi hoisted himself onto the highest ledge of the hokage's tower. He usually added chakra to his feet, and climbed up horizontally, but he decided to do it the old fashioned way for a change. Stepping forward, he made his way towards the large window that framed the hokage's office. Years before, Kakashi learned how to open the window from the outside, and had used that for instant access to the hokage. To his knowledge, Jaraiya was the only other ninja that used that entrance.

"Crash!" came the loud noise from inside Tsunade's room, alerting Kakashi to a possible danger inside.

The jounin yanked his forehead protector up, revealing his second most valuable possession, his sharingan. Now primed for any sudden assaults, Kakashi walked tentatively across the ledge, peeking into the office inherited by Tsunade. His visible eye widened, and he twisted back just in time to see an ornate chair fly at him, shattering the glass window, and plunging into the street below. Kakashi thought about villagers below, but recalled that they didn't frequent these parts of town, and the only danger would be to any inexperienced genin, caught off guard.

'The hokage could be in danger,' Kakashi reminded himself, shrugging off other worries as unimportant. He poked his head in, only to hear the last part of a heated argument, Tsunade bellowing a few choice words at the bandaged adviser and chief counsel member, Danzo.

Danzo himself, however, remained quiet, retreating into the shadows.

Kakashi stepped in through the broken window pane. "H-hello? What did I miss?" he asked, hoping to be enlightened to why Tsunade would get this upset with her adviser. "Manipulative lowlife scum..."Tsunade Mumbled darkly, turning to welcome Kakashi. "Hello, Kakashi." Tsunade greeted lifelessly.

"Hokage-sama, are you alright?" inquired Kakashi. "I'm fine, but that... that Danzo infuriates me! How could Sarutobi-sama stand him!" the godaime exclaimed.

At that moment, however, Naruto burst through the doors to the large office. "Baa-chan, whaddaya want!" Naruto screamed, wondering why team seven was summoned by the hokage.

Tsunade's eyes twitched as she rubbed her temples with her fingertips. "Great, another pain to deal with." Tsunade mumbled, thinking of the many headaches that lay in store for her as Konoha's hokage. "Fine, I'll tell you, but you may not like what i have to say." Tsunade started.

"I am sending team seven on a mission." Tsunade stated, dropping her voice down to a whisper. "Some of you may not make it back alive."


	2. Chapter 2

-NOTE- Hiya! This is Joey, friend and partner to Jongygy! My pen name is IMyoIMYO, but you all can call me either. I will be doing chapter two, and four, six, eight, etc. He, on the other hand, will write chapters one, three, five, and all of the odd numbers. Also, we have agreed to post on Thursdays, just like the manga and anime. So, enjoy the chapter!

**Disclaimer: don't, and won't, own Naruto.**

* * *

"Some of you may not come back alive..."

Those words kept ringing in Naruto's ears throughout the silence that followed. The silver haired jounin lowered his book for a moment.

"What do you mean?" the furious pinkette demanded. Tsunade winced, while breathing out an explanation. "Some of you aren't at the level required to defeat the opponents you may encounter."

**"Why are you sending my precious Sasuke-kun on this deadly mission!"** Sakura's inner personality screamed silently.

The raven haired genin spoke with a smirk."You mean that dobe Naruto, he will be the one to die."

This infuriated the blond and he screamed "Baka! Show some respect for the future hokage!" "Dattebayo!" he added, as extra affect.

"QUIET!" The powerful hokage screamed, but then smiled at the petrified faces of the ninja standing before her. "Back on topic, the mission." She stated dryly.

Kakashi, keeping his bored demeanor, and having seen all the action thus far, returned to reading his icha icha paradise. Tsunade resumed rubbing her temples as she returned to the subject. We suspect the Akatsuki has kidnapped three of our chuunins and have retreated into the back woods.

Gah, why are the Akatsuki always bothering us? Naruto complained. Jiraiya had kept tabs on the Akatsuki, and they hadn't even captured the one tail yet, let alone the nine tails.

"I don't know" Tsunade said worriedly. "It's up to team seven to find out." The silver haired jounin grinned in anticipation behind the latest icha icha magazine. Despite Kakashi's constant bored tone, he always relished a chance to train or fight.

Tsunade sighed. "There is something we aren't telling you about the Akatsuki..." she started. "There may be members in that organization that are powerful enough to kill me, the hokage, and possibly even destroy the entire village..." Tsunade said worriedly.

Kakashi's grin faded, and he coolly shut his icha icha paradise copy with one hand. Naruto, sensing the new tension in the room, stopped complaining. The pinkette's delicate hand clenched into a fist. Sasuke suddenly broke the silence with an amused smile. "What? No loudmouth dattebayo?"

The tension tapered off, as Naruto became furious again.

"Baka!"

"Hn. Dobe."

"Sasuke!"

Kakashi, aggravated by their antics broke the pair's feud and silenced them both with the famous thousand years of pain jutsu, which was a tiger seal pressed to a nerve in the rear.  
"Owwwwwww! How could you sensei!" Naruto said, reddened by Kakashi's strange jutsu that sent him bounding into a wall. Kakashi's response was to hold up his two outstretched fingers again.

"Baka." Naruto said through clenched teeth.

"Owwwww!" Sasuke screamed yet again.

"what did you call me?" Kakashi said.

"Owww Owwww Owwweee!" Sasuke and Naruto screamed one after another.

"Ready to tell me who said it?" Kakashi said. Tsunade amused, laughed. She felt sorry for the children and told Kakashi to let them go, and Kakashi complied. He sniffed his fingers, and winced. Who new the blonde could fart so much?

"Naaaruuuuutoooo!" Sakura screamed while punching him in his face. "How...Dare...You...Put...Sasuke...Through...This!"

**"I wanted to be the the one to touch Sasuke's ass!"** hollered inner Sakura.

After the pinkette's rampage, the room was silent except for Naruto and Sasuke's arguing, but the silver haired jounin thought he heard a faint snicker. Tsunade interrupted before Kakashi could pinpoint the direction. "Meet me and Kakashi at the north Gate tomorrow at ten A.M." she said to the exiting team. "Oh, and Naruto, don't be late." Naruto grinned at this. "Whatever baa-chan!" He called from the hallway.

The extra pair of eyes that had watched the group disappeared into the shadows. "I wonder..." The man mumbled, hidden by the shadows cast by the overhead lighting in the office building.

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"Ramen, ramen, ramen!" shouted Naruto gleefully, as he packed his transportation scrolls full of the greasy soup. Naruto had been thinking of Tsunade's words all day, and they settled in his mind, changing his happy smile to a worried one. "Death, huh?" he spoke.

The blonde had cheated death plenty of times before, but it seemed that each time, the pendulum of fate swung lower. He recalled his last brush with death, and the face of Orochimaru nearing him, blade outstretched etched itself in his mind.

Naruto shrugged the eerie feeling he suddenly got off , as he went in search through the cupboards for more ramen. "Ah, what's this?" A voice asked from the shadows of the dimly lit room. "Ramen?"

Naruto stiffened. "It's me, Kakashi..." Naruto gave a confused look, hearing the words coming from an unfamiliar voice, and threw the kunai into the shadows. the stranger stepped forward into the light, revealing the perverted jounin with the kunai caught between fingers. "Your sensei..." Kakashi spoke, although Naruto swore he could smell smoke from behind him.

"Oh! Sensei! What are you doing here?" Naruto said relieved.

"Naruto, there's something you must know about hokage-sama." Kakashi said.

"Yeah? What is it sensei?" Naruto questioned. "I already know she's old, if that's it."

"I suspect the hokage is one of the Akatsuki!" proclaimed the strange-voiced Kakashi.

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'Hmmm.' Naruto wondered if what Kakashi said was true.

Could baa-chan really be one of the Akatsuki? He had to consider all the things that Sensei had said over the past hour that they had talked. 'Why would Tsunade send three mere genins and Kakashi against someone as formidable as the Akatsuki?' Naruto wasn't always that observant, but he was no fool. he had seen two members in action.

"Should I tell Sakura-chan?" Naruto mused aloud. "No, she might think I'm a traitor or something. Gah, its getting late! I've gotta get my sleep!" Naruto, troubled by these things, dismissed the thoughts as he kicked off his pants and fell asleep.

Naruto woke up to the sounds of birds chirping, water running, and Sakura yelling in his ear.

"Baka! Its nine thirty! Wake up!"

Naruto groggily answered. "Huh? What?" he then looked down at his current position.

"Sakura-chan? You re on top of me!" It was true, Sakura needed to flop on Naruto, to make him stir. Naruto then gave his most perverted smile subconsciously.

Sakura blushed slightly, before coming to her senses. "oh, NARUTO!" She proceeded to give him a smack he'd never forget, and it made him roll off of his bed, completely naked.

Sakura ran out of the room blood oozing from her nose. Sasuke grunted in surprise as she ran own the streets her face bright red. As she zipped past Kakashi, he wondered if sexy jutsu worked on girls as well.

By ten A.M. everybody was at the north gate ready to depart. All that was left to do was for the hokage to wish team seven good luck. As Tsunade appeared, Naruto couldn't help but wonder if she was actually setting them up for a trap.

Kakashi noticed, and wondered what seemed to be bothering Naruto. He had acted a little strange around Tsunade. Kakashi shrugged it off, he would ask him later.

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Team seven rushed through the trees in silence. The four ninjas had been jumping from branch hour after hour, they had to use what daylight they had left to reach their checkpoint.

"Sakura, are you feeling ok? you look pale, and we need everyone in full health for the mission." Kakashi asked.

**"Of course not! Who would be after seeing such huge morning wood!" inner Sakura screamed. **

"I'm, uh, ok." Sakura managed to say after swallowing a bit of puke that came up in her mouth at the idea of Naruto being bigger than Sasuke, in the nether regions.

Naruto, realizing what she was thinking about, gave her the unique pervy smile Jiraiya used. He turned up the corners of his mouth, and narrowed his eyes sheepishly. His smile resembled the one he gave her earlier that morning. Sakura gave in, gagging, choking, and she finally puked.

The momentum caused by the speed they were traveling, forced the vomit backwards, right into Sasuke.

"Hahahaha!" Naruto bellowed. "Sakura-chan! You threw up on Sasuke!" "You vom-" Naruto was suddenly cut off by the thousand years of pain jutsu by a rubber gloved opponent.

"Oweeeeeeeee!" Naruto Screamed as he ran away. The sound could be heard for miles through the forest.

"Sakura, Sasuke, are you alright?" Kakashi asked the disgusted genin.

Sakura looked up at Kakashi. "I don't think those rubber gloves did you much good." Sakura said, while pinching her nostrils. Kakashi took in a deep intake of air and gagged. 'What did he eat?' Kakashi thought. He took off the half melted gloves and buried them. "While you two get cleaned up, I'll set up camp, and look for Naruto" Kakashi said. "Its already getting dark." The silver haired sensei added.

"Naruto!" Kakashi yelled. "Where are you!"After a few minutes, he heard a rustle in a bush, and immediately investigated. In a flash, Kakashi was standing over the bush. "Naruto?" Kakashi asked. The response from the bush disturber was to expertly throw a kunai directly aimed at Kakashi's remaining eye.

"Naruto, what are you doing? You know that the thousand years of pain was for your benefit." Kakashi, at the last moment, noticed the slip of red inked paper dangling from the kunai.

"BOOM!"

The explosion rocked the trees. Kakashi barely avoided the blast. "That couldn't be Naruto. He isn't that crafty." Kakashi muttered to himself.

Kakashi couldn't see his attacker, because the large trees that grew only in and around Konoha were blocking out all the moonlight. 'Time for sharingan' The silver haired jounin thought. As soon as He tilted his forhead protecter, He saw hundreds of kunai in flight toward him. He caught a glimpse of a black and red cloak flashing through the trees. Kakashi smoothly pulled out two kunai of his own, accurately threw one at his attacker and deflected the attacking kunai with his remaining knife.

Boom! Naruto shuddered.' What was going on? Who was fighting?' Naruto thought. The realization gradually dawned on him that only team 7 and the akatsuki were in the back woods. He had to find his way to his friends. They could be in big trouble! As he approached the battle scene, all that was left was hundreds of kunai in the ground and in the trees. He found a tuft of white hair laying underneath a kunai. Naruto Immediately dashed in the direction the kunai was pointing. He spied Kakashi in front of him chasing someone in a Black and red cloak. But what Kakashi didn't see was the other three people that ambushed him from the back.

"whizz! Whoosh! Zoom!" The kunai seemed to fly out of Naruto's fingers one by one as they sailed toward the Black cloaked opponents. Naruto watched in amazement as each person saw the attack and dodged them all. Kakashi turned around after a kunai thwacked against his butt. "Narutoo-" Kakashi began to growl as he spun around. He stopped as he saw Naruto expertly throwing kicks and attacks at the black shadows. Kakshi stepped back surprised. But only for a moment, for Naruto just got knocked out.

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Naruto woke up to the sound of birds chirping, water running, and Sakura speaking into his ear.

"Naruto" she whispered. "You were so brave…" she continued , slowly "Oh, and the way you saved sensei." she spoke this, while pressing her lips to Naruto's ear, enjoying the heat that his neck provided.

Naruto was definitely enjoying his position. Sakura was straddling him above his hips, with her upper body stretched snuggly onto his.

Naruto's tenth tail stood, hardened stiff from the kunoichi's body and actions. Sakura snapped her head up, feeling something press into her thigh. She propped herself up, using the ground that wasn't covered with blonde boy to lift her body up. Sakura tilted her head to see behind her, and sure enough, the boxers Naruto wore were tented. The pinkette giggled, amused at how easily Naruto was aroused. Deciding to take advantage of the situation, and with slight prompting from her inner personality, she crawled to the side of Naruto, grabbing his shaft roughly through the cloth and squeezed firmly.

Now aroused, the pair started chanting each others names.

"Sakura-chan, oh, so good!"

"Mmm, so big"

"Sakura-chan!"

"Naruto!"

"Sakura-chan!"

"Naruto!"

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Sasuke and Sakura had been sitting in Naruto's small tent, watching the blonde boy slip in and out of consciousness. Kakashi had left instructions for them to watch out for him, so he wouldn't go into shock when he awoke. He was no medic-nin, but he knew a chakra punch when he saw one. The jounin himself, however, was running through the forest, in search of enemies.

As the genin sat in the room, bored, Sakura noticed a change in the scenery. Looking over her shoulder at Naruto, she saw the very thing that had been troubling her since the morning of the previous day. The blanket Kakashi threw on top of Naruto's body was tenting around his midsection. Sakura tapped Sasuke's shoulder lightly, not able to peel her eyes of the blonde.

"What now, cant you see I'm brooding?" Sasuke demanded, before spotting the covered erection. "What, can't handle a little penis?" Sasuke mocked.

**"Little! Are you blind!" **Screeched inner Sakura. Before Sakura could respond to her inner persona, Naruto's drowsy voice interrupted her thought.

"Sakura-chan, oh, so good..." mumbled Naruto, still sleeping deeply.

Hearing this, Sakura decided to put an end to his fantasy.

"Naruto!" she shouted, in an unfruitful attempt to wake the blonde up.

he only moaned louder, and the name calling went back and forth. Sakura stopped to clamp her hands over her mouth, seeing something she hadn't before. Naruto had just wet the bed.

"Wow, even Naruto should be too old for that..." Sakura said, attracting an interested Sasuke.

"Too old for what?" he asked.

"Naruto, he just peed himself!" Sakura snickered.

"Hn. Sakura, that isn't piss." Sasuke stated, recognizing the substance.

"Then what i..." Sakura started, before her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.

"EWWWWWWWW!" Sakura screamed as blood oozed from her nose while she ran back into her tent. Kakashi, back from his scouting, stepped into Naruto's tent, nearly being trampled by a pink haired girl. Blood spurted onto his jounin vest on her way out, and glanced towards the now awake and blushing blonde shinobi. Kakashi groaned. "What did I say about showing the sexy jutsu to Sakura?" Naruto's perverted smile turned into a snicker.

"Ha! Sensei! Did you see her face?" Naruto shouted in excitement. "She wants me! Dattebayo!" Naruto ran to Sakura's tent to ask for a date, leaving Kakashi standing with the latest copy of icha icha in his hand. 'I'm glad to see that his tongue wasn't hurt by Akatsuki,' the amused jounin thought, watching Sasuke stroll out of the tent as he returned to the fascinating pages of his book. But Kakashi worried that that wasn't the last he'd seen of the Akatsuki, especially when he felt that strange aura again, while patrolling.

later, the genin ate, and prepared to leave. Team seven hopped from branch to branch hastily, to make up for the time lost the previous night. Kakashi was jumping as fast as the three younger ninja could, and started re-reading the amazing issue of icha icha paradise, when he suddenly felt that strange aura again. This time as strong as the first encounter with the strange aura.

He looked over at Naruto, and Naruto's head perked up. It seemed the orange genin recognized the strange chakra as well. Kakashi pondered on what kind of power Naruto held… He saw him fight last night in a way he'd never shown he was able to do.

"huh… my students are truly surprising" Kakashi said with a grin.

Maybe it was Kyuubi's influence, or Narutos sixth sense, but something urged Naruto to stop.

"Guys, stop!" Naruto yelled while landing on an tree branch. He suddenly pulled out a kunai and quickly threw it towards a shadow.

"Oh. It seems you've found me." A figure emerged hidden within a black and red cloak holding Naruto's kunai by the blade in between his fore and middle finger.

"Time for you to die."


	3. Chapter 3

-Note- Hi guys, Jon here again. We get to see a little action in this chapter, but the NaruSaku goodness from last chapter wont make much of an appearance. anyhoo, Rate and Review!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, And I'm doing this for free.**

Danzo's Twisted Will.

Kakashi sprung into action, seeing the one person who's appearance was inevitable.

"Ah, so you finally show up, It..." Kakashi started, but was interupted by a wild scream.

"ITACHIIII!" Shouted a genin with bloodshot eyes, and a thousand birds chirping in his hand. Sasuke sprinted across the forest, damaging trees and shrubs with his outstretched chidori.

The Akatsuki member scoffed, and then shoved Sasuke's incoming arm out of the way, into the path of an unsuspecting Naruto. Kakashi's eyes widened, and he took Sasuke's wrist firmly, giving the genin a chance to dispel his chidori.

The jounin then spun around, lashing out at Itachi with the back of his fist. Itachi brought up his arm, blocking Kakashi's attack. Growling, The jounin fired repeated bunches and jabs, but each advance was evaded.

Kakashi sprung into the air and swung his body around, aiming to strike Itachi with the heel of his foot. His attempt was too slow, however, as the Akatsuki member had already backed out of the way, and was standing a few inches behind the foot.

Kakashi knew that the missing nin before him was going to put up a fight. He leaped backwards, and his team did the same. Forming hand seals in midair, Kakashi shouted, preparing to give team seven time to regroup. "Doton, doryukatsu!" cried kakashi, landing backwards as his jutsu took affect.

The plates of earth split in two between team seven and Itachi, and tilted away from where they were cut. Trees were torn by the roots, and plunged into the newly formed valley. Itachi stayed silent, forming a single hand sign. Another Itachi appeared, and jumped high into the air, before dispersing into ravens. Suddenly, the forest that surrounded Itachi disappeared. Kakashi groaned, realizing his crucial mistake. "Henge." he thought out loud, glancing at his students' reaction to the hundreds of Akatsuki members that appeared behind Itachi.

Sasuke was still quite dazed from the failure of his attack. an opportunity, he now turned his head, hoping to be able to warn the group of these men. He had felt something...wrong... with the momentary conflict between himself and his elder brother. Usually the clan murderer spoke to Sasuke, implanting some life lesson in his mind. now, however, he had just pushed him away.

"This guy, he isn't...!" Sasuke began to scream, to alert his team of the difference he had found in the shinobi, but was silenced by an Akatsuki allied shinobi, who had gathered his chakra, and flung himself over the gap in the earth at Sasuke, their collision sending the pair flying deeper into the forest.

"Sasuke-kun!" screamed Sakura, and began to run, when Kakashi spoke.

"Sakura. Sasuke is strong. He can handle himself." The jounin reassured, but then gave advice to the rest of his team. "It is extremely important that we stay together, and in formation."

The two remaining members of Kakashi's team nodded. "Alright then, formation B-Twelve." the jounin breathed in his usual bored manner. The team sprang into action, stepping in sync with one another, spinning in a tight defensive circle. They had only learned a few formations and tactics, but it was coming to good use.

The battle ahead was crucial, as more and more shinobi soared across the valley.

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Sasuke landed with a thud, scraping along the forest floor. His attacker had pushed off of his body, landing somewhere in the forest, and was nowhere to be found. Sasuke stood up slowly, his now active sharingan taking in his surroundings and darting around in search of danger. He found it, in the form of a very large summon.

"Uchiha Sasuke." Hissed a large snake, which was circling the forest area where the genin stood.

"Manda." Spoke Sasuke, glaring daggers at the gray snake with his sharingan. He had seen the snake before, while chasing Gaara out of the village.

"Manda!" Sasuke said again, this time with determination and fury. The raven haired boy drew a pair of kunai, throwing the first, and grasping the second tightly, as he ran across the forest floor. Sasuke pumped chakra into his feet, prepared to leap to great heights.

With kunai wrapped fiercely in both hands, Sasuke made the jump. While traveling upward at Manda's body, his sharingan eyes searched for any weak points visible on the creatures body. Manda had none.

'Then, we make one.' Sasuke thought, a plan formulating in his head.

Manda watched as the so called genius of the hidden leaf fled like a common coward. With a chuckle, the snake slowly followed Sasuke, toying with its prey. Within a few minutes, Manda was sorry he had, as Sasuke was nowhere to be seen. The faint crack of a twig, or rustle of a branch, was all that guided him in Sasuke's direction.

Sasuke stood on a branch, a mile away from where he first saw the giant snake. "Golden opportunity." he mumbled out loud, as he began to scan the area. His body darted around, placing trip wires, kunai, and explosive tags. There was one factor that decided the battle, and it was all up to Manda.

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Naruto brought his hands to their favorite position, creating a cross seal with the first two fingers of each hand. "Taju kage bunshin no jutsu!" he shouted to the wind, and team seven's small base was soon filled with copies of himself. His plan was to literally push off any attackers, once they were piled in the valley, a few jutsu could finish them off. This would also give Sakura time to throw a genjutsu over the subordinates. While she couldn't imagine to trap full fledged Akatsuki members in her genin level jutsu, the ones that surrounded team seven where most likely just highwaymen and common thugs, hired for a few yen, and given a spare cloak. She wasn't far from the truth.

"Alright, push!" Naruto shouted at his shadow clones. He didn't need to yell, because they were a part of him, but he liked the feeling of being in charge. Each clone picked an opponent, but because of the difference in numbers, there were soon three or four Narutos to every Akatsuki subordinate.

The plan had been working great. The clones were either in a deadlock with their Akatsuki counterparts, or were slowly gaining ground. Kakashi was working to, cutting into a few with his raikiri. Team seven had the advantage of strength, experience, and in Naruto's case, numbers.

The tide of battle, however, was about to change. A few of the Akatsuki subordinates had held back, watching the situation. Now, they saw opportunity to strike. Giving a signal to Itachi and other members around the cliff, who sat in branches watching the events unfold, they began to form hand seals. "Katon, Hosenka no jutsu!" they shouted in unison, shooting the small fireballs towards the massive amount of shadow clones.

The forest area was once again covered in smoke, as most of the clones dissipated.

Akatsuki shinobi, seeing this, headed for the center of the battlefield, where Kakashi guarded the concentrated Sakura.

"Naruto, hold them back. The only way to finish this fight is to defeat Itachi!" Kakashi shouted from across the field, before disappearing with a swirl of leaves.

Naruto turned to face the dozens of opponents rushing at him. Creating the his favorite seal yet again, the genin shouted. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" hundreds of replicas of himself appeared, and Naruto demanded that they form a circle to protect Sakura.

Naruto bit his thumb, drawing blood. Slapping his palm onto the ground, Naruto shouted a jutsu name, and a small toad appeared before the genin. Naruto scribbled a quick message for him on a small scroll, and told him to head for Konoha.

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"Closer...closer..." Sasuke repeated quietly, hidden completely in the underbrush of Fire Country's forest. He made sure to shake the branches overhead every few moments, beckoning for his large opponent to come nearer.

Manda slithered through the forest, toppling the trees separating him from his goal. He silently cursed Orochimaru for dealing with shady figures."There had better be plenty of humans to eat the next time he summons me..." the snake growled.

Sasuke held his breath, watching his opponent linger just inches from the trap he set. Manda suddenly looked up, sensing danger ahead. He cautiously edged backwards, wary of a possible trap. Sasuke cursed under his breath, he needed Manda to set off the trap.

With extraordinary speed, Sasuke circled around to face Manda's huge tail. "Katon, goukakyuu no jutsu!" Sasuke yelled, both shooting a ball of flames towards the scaly creature, but also alerting Manda of his presence. Turning, the snake saw Sasuke.

"There you are, worm." Manda hissed, his hardened scales took the damage of the jutsu.

Bringing his head up like a cobra, Manda watched Sasuke's frightful gaze. The giant snake swung his head downwards, prepared to crush the genin in one blow. his head continued its fearful journey, as Sasuke barely had time to leap backwards, missing the scaly head by inches, and being pushed back by the shock wave of Manda's impact.

Sasuke saw no chance of making this out alive, unless by some miracle. If his suspicions were correct, Kakashi-sensei had to fight Itachi. That left Naruto, dead last of the academy, to fend off tons of enemies. Sakura, well, she had no hope.

Sasuke saw another possible victory over Manda. His allegiance was never very strong for Orochimaru, or so he had heard. He silently thanked Sakura for her lecturing Naruto, and that he could learn a few things as well.

"Hn. How many humans did you receive this time, snake?" Sasuke said, loud enough for the bigger being to hear him.

"Enough." Manda growled a response.

"Where's Orochimaru anyway? Leash a little longer today?" Sasuke taunted.

"I...I fight for myself." Manda responded, without much conviction.

"Then why are you here letting Akatsuki order you around?" Asked the genin.

"Akatsuki? Boy, you are a fool. and not worthy of that sharingan, either. Once I'm done with you, I'll rip it out of your head!" The snake said, the cold glare returning to his eyes.

'Well, that didn't work. Back to the fighting." Sasuke thought, returning to fighting stance.

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Kakashi sprinted ahead, looking for any signs of the Akatsuki Uchiha. He felt guilty for leaving two genin to push back nearly an army of enemy ninjas, and wouldn't have left if he knew Itachi would run like this.

'Naruto. Sakura. Be safe.' he thought. The strange aura that had plagued him all day, tapered, and got stronger. it felt like Uchiha, but somehow was alien to the feeling he had gotten around Obito and Sasuke.

Kakashi's thoughts were interupted, by a heel that was brought down heavily on his shoulder, making the jounin reel back in anguish. Looking up, he found the attacker. None other than Itachi Uchiha.

Itachi knew he could no longer escape the silver haired jounin, and his hands flashed through hand seals. Kakashi, with his sharingan eye still covered, couldn't copy the seals.

"Katon, Goukakyuu no jutsu!" Itachi shouted, and spat out a large fire ball that scorched the ground. When the jutsu faded, Itachi's eyes searched around for Kakashi's charred remains, and seeing none, he closed his eyes, revealing his sharingan. Spinning around, he met Kakashi's foot, which knocked him back a few feet. Glaring at Kakashi, who's sharingan was also revealed, Itachi once again quickly formed hand seals.

Kakashi stood, watching out of his sharingan eye, as the seals were formed in slow motion. 'Tiger, bird, monkey, rabbit, tiger!' he thought to himself, keeping timing while forming the seals into his own hands.

"Suiton, Suigadan!" The two shouted in sync, as a giant water bullet shot from their mouths. The attacks met in the middle, clashing together, but eventually falling and returning to the earth. The two fighters hadn't waited, however, and now were running sideways, twisted to face each other, and forming hand seals. "Katon, Goukakyuu no jutsu!" again, the two jutsu clashed between the pair.

Kakashi made his move. Running on an angle, he charged up his signature jutsu, and felt the power of raikiri course through his hands. now running beside Itachi, Kakashi thrust his right arm towards the Uchiha, only for it to be redirected into the ground. Skidding along the packed soil of the forest, Kakashi disarmed his jutsu.

Kakashi ran headfirst towards Itachi, and Itachi did the same. Each fighter flew to the center of the battlefield, and clashed with kicks. directing chakra into his feet, Kakashi used his momentum to climb above the Uchiha. Seemingly, Itachi had the same idea, and the pair began to climb, using each others momentum to get higher in the middair battle. Although in the battle of his life, Kakashi couldn't help but wonder about his genin team.

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Naruto was spent. He had defeated hundreds of enemy shinobi already, but they just kept coming. Naruto wondered if this is how his enemies felt against his shadow clones. Sakura had recently come out of her preparations, and the genjutsu was a success, sending the entire field of enemies into a deep slumber. Now, however, more Akatsuki members fought hard, climbing into battle only after Sakura finished, and the genjutsu couldn't capture them.

Naruto heard a scream from across the camp.

What he saw angered him more than anything in his life. Sakura had been pushed down, and the blouse she wore was ripped open by a group of Akatsuki bandits, who decided they would reward themselves for the battle.

Naruto cursed himself for not paying enough attention to his pink haired crush. "DIE!" he shouted, as he sprinted towards the group of men, eyes wide and blood red.

By the time he got there, Sakura was no longer visible, covered by the bandits' selfish bodies. A wall of men had moved in between Naruto and the rapists, prepared to defend their comrades, and their turn with the kunoichi.

"Sakura-Chaaan!" Naruto growled, A single tail of chakra growing onto the blazing red chakra that had covered his body. He dove towards the defensive line of Akatsuki subordinates, his chakra tail killing those that he didn't kill with his own clawed hands. Naruto ran towards the biggest of the group, a giant of a man, who must have weighed five hundred pounds. Hurling his body towards the man, Naruto traveled right through his thick chest, tearing his intestines and arteries with him, and landing with a roll on the other side.

The feral genin walked towards the dogpile of shinobi that covered his precious person, ripping apart anyone who dared to defy him.

Coming closer to the pile, Naruto let something out between a growl and a scream, a sound that would have made most brave men soil their pants. The men looked upwards instantly, forgetting the task of getting the pinkette's tight black shorts off. The last thing they saw was a blood red chakra blast, disintegrating them all to putrid ashes.

Shaking his orange jacket, trying to remove the blood and guts from the fabric, Naruto's eyes slowly returned to their cerulean color.

The barely conscious Sakura felt something warm wrap around her bared upper body, and heard the battlecry of more enemies, and Naruto's proclamation that no one would hurt "Sakura-chan" before drifting off into a deep sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

-Note- Hey guys it's me Joey again, (AKA: IMyoIMYO)I'm not very used to writing like this, so please do criticize, so I can get better. As you know, chapter 5 will come out next Thursday, so stay tuned!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, this is a fanfic that's free to the nations.**

Sasuke resumed his fighting stance, looking warily at Manda, the summon of Orochimaru. The angered snake unleashed its fury with a powerful strike, bringing its massive head down onto the tree branch where Sasuke stood. Sasuke closed his eyes, knowing that he wouldn't be able to handle the snake without the eyes native to his clan.

He activated his sharingan, and concentrated his chakra into his legs, to propel himself high into the air, above the trees and the snake within those trees. Once there, he brought his hand to his face, and exhaled a steady stream of flames. "katon: goukakyuu no jutsu!"

The large snake swiveled around to meet the fire jutsu, astonished that the genin could get behind a creature of its prowess. As if acting by itself, the dark scales that covered the slithering giant tightened, to repel fire that blasted its body. The snake swung his massive tail around, blindly swatting at everything in range.

After the moment of blinding lights and heat, Manda turned to look for Sasuke and found him hundreds of feet away, detectable only by the snakes high sense of smell. The young Uchiha had broken his leg, and now sprawled uselessly on the forest floor.

"Ha! I've got you now!" Manda chuckled, lunging in a flash to where the wounded Sasuke lied. He pounded the area fiercely, to kill the defenseless Uchiha, before remembering the trap that Sasuke had previously set.

Poof! Sasuke disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Manda searched around frantically, looking for both the raven haired genin, and the trigger that would be used to set off whatever trap Sasuke had imagined. Unfortunately for him, he found both at once.

Huh. Sasuke grunted unimpressed from a branch above Manda, cutting a thin strand of standard ninja wire with a kunai. The wire was wrapped around several tree branches, and now they swayed back and forth from the release in tension. The shaking itself, displayed the true genius of Sasuke's trap, as small slips of paper floated down from their perch among the leaves. Sasuke uttered a single word, releasing the chakra he had implanted in each explosive tag, setting of their detonation. "KAI!"

Once the smoke from the explosion cleared, Sasuke looked for the remains of his scaly opponent. He peered through the dirt to find a hole, not a crater from the trap, but a hole.

Sasuke clenched his teeth. 'Manda burrowed through the ground' He thought with anger. Suddenly, the tree Sasuke was standing on shook violently. Sasuke grinned as he jumped from shaking tree to shaking tree. Manda didn t know that Sasuke had been training himself, and now possesed the speed needed to beat such a technique. Before Sasuke could attack, the singed Manda thrust its full body upwards through the dirt, intercepting Sasuke in midair in between branches. Sasuke hit The muscular frame and fell 30 feet onto the ground.

Manda laughed at the sight before him.

"Ha! That's what you get for interfering with Manda!" the snake triumphed creepily. "You are just a lowly leaf ninja!" Manda added.

Sasuke's response was to cough up blood.

"You, you can't even defeat your own brother." The snake slowly taunted, while advancing towards him. Sasuke grinned, and disappeared in a cloud of gray.

Sasuke yelled above him "You can't even defeat me!. Chidori!" Sasuke said as the sound of birds chirping and blue lightning filled the air. Sasuke plunged down on the beast, aiming to damage the flesh exposed by the broken scales. Manda screamed in terror and pain. After a few seconds, Sasuke dropped lightly onto his feet and inspected the area. Manda had escaped wounded.

From the depths of the forest he heard Manda scream,

"I'll have vengeance!"

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Kakashi was getting sorely beaten by his Uchiha opponent.

the jounin, almost depleted of chakra, spun around Itachi, propelling himself with concentrated chakra to his feet. He grasped his wrist, and molded his chakra to make a chidori. He didn't know how much longer he could fight, he couldn't even form raikiri.

Moments later, Kakashi's chidori illuminated the back of Itachi's head. The Uchiha spun on his heels, prepared to defend against whatever attacks the silver jounin presented.

With the chidori mere inches from the Akatsuki member's face, He was shocked out of his henge. Kakashi gasped at what he thought he saw through the thick smoke created by henge. The Akatsuki member noticed the distraction long enough for him to sidestep Kakashi's chidori, and deliver a chakra induced punch to his temple. Kakashi, though exhausted, grasped his opponent by the shoulders and Itachi did the same.

Before any of them could have redied their mangekyo sharingan, an adrenaline ridden genin jumped out of the forest, forming hand signs as he ran. Before Kakashi could tell his student to stop, he had already screamed the phrase "Katon, goukakyuu no jutsu!" and bellowed fire at the two ninja.

When the fire dissapated, Sasuke spied out a figure on one knee. "Need.. Icha Icha..." The singed ninja stuttered out of his slightly burnt lips. Sasuke realized with horror, that the ninja that too the damage was his sensei.

"Kakashi sensei! Are you alright? Sasuke frantically yelled. Kakashi slowly fell over, and dipped into a heavy state of unconsciousness. Sasuke picked up the dazed ninja, and speedily leaped back to where Naruto was fighting. He leaped along, branch over branch, and thought of the days events. He knew his brother wouldn't possibly push him away like he didn't matter.

Sasuke's thoughts was replaced by a new worry when he approached the original disfigured battle site. He knew Naruto never used his true power until desperately needed, But Sasuke could see the destruction that could only be caused by the strange red chakra he emit. Stepping through the sea of ripped apart bodies, He doubted that the blonde and Sakura could have possibly defeated the bandit army that the Akatsuki members hired.

When Sasuke arrived at the center of the battlefield, he walked around in the smoke listening for signs of life. The genin readied his sharingan eyes, should an enemy attack from the depths of the smoke created by moving feet and popped shadow clones. The raven haired genin turned his head, he heard a barely audible crack behind him. Sasuke brought his hands up to form his hand seals, he spotted Naruto, hoarsely calling out to him.

"Sakura-chan." Naruto coughed, and continued his painful speech, "She's over...there..."

Sasuke, worried about the feminine figure to team seven, ignored Naruto and Kakashi's weak physical state, and rushed to Sakura's side. "Sakura! Wake up!" Sasuke yelled worriedly while roughly shaking Sakura's shoulders.

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Sakura awoke, Feeling more comfortable than she had ever been on a mission, maybe even at home. She looked groggily to her left, to see Naruto passed out on the ground, looking completely exhausted. He was also shirtless, which led to her next observation.

Looking around, she found her sleeping arrangements had changed. She sat up, in order to get a better view of the tent she slept in. The tent was the one she had used on every mission thus far, although there were some changes. the light shone in from the tan colored tarp, but it was clear to see by the shadows that branches had been bundled against the material, to insulate her sleeping area.

The girl pushed off the blankets covering her body. Blankets were a luxury, and only permitted on missions to the cold villages to the north, yet Naruto's jacket and shirt, packed with soft leaves, had been set on top of her. She stood up, shaking the leaves out of the clothes, and laying them beside Naruto. Sakura had slept on her standard issue travel mattress, but the one Naruto owned had been stacked with it, giving her added comfort.

The pinkette thought about Sasuke. It was clear to her that he was the one who had set this up, but she wondered where he was.

She walked outside to find a straight faced Sasuke staring blankly at the sky.

"Erm, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura politely said while lightly tapping him on his shoulder. Sasuke swiftly turned his head and glared at Sakura. To Sakura, it seemed as if he was extremely paranoid. His expression then softened.

"Sakura. You're up." The genin said with mock surprise. Sasuke continued. "I knew you would recover. Some people aren't that fortunate." Sasuke pointed to another tent. Sakura, with worry on her face rushed into the tent, just to find Kakashi lying down on his back, barely breathing, as if dead. Sakura gasped. "Can't we do anything?" Sakura cried, looking back at Sasuke.

Sasuke shook his head. "Naruto can't do much either. He built all of this in one night. I can't believe how much chakra he can produce when he is worried about you, he made more clones then he did when we were up against Orochimaru." he commented.

Sakura blushed, and gazed at the tent, deep in thought.

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A few hours later, Naruto woke, and realized his beloved Sakura-chan had disappeared from her bed. "Saaaakuuuuraaaaa-chan!" Naruto screamed.

Sakura heard his scream and ran back into her tent. "Naruto, I'm right here." Sakura said.

Naruto pivoted and wiped away his tears. "oh!" Naruto stood up. "I'm sorry for that outburst." Naruto politely said, expecting a slap from the pinkette's hand. It was such a beautiful hand, Naruto thought with a blush.

Sakura realized what usually happened in situations like these, and knew she couldn't possibly slap him...after all, he did save her life. Sakura smiled at him, and walked back to Kakashi's tent. Naruto, shocked, looked at Sasuke for an explanation. Sasuke merely rose an eyebrow and gave an all too common grunt. Naruto followed his fellow teammates to their sick sensei s tent.

As the hours passed, Each genin on their knees sat around Kakashi and contemplated about what to do next. Since they were lost in the forest, they couldn't send back for help, the troop Naruto sent for wouldn't find them. Sasuke worried that the Akatsuki would come back, and along with Manda. They realized that the only option was to carry Kakashi with them through the forest, hoping that they hit some sort of civilization.

Naruto frowned, thinking of all the possibilities of ambush in the forest. Even though there was a big chance of danger in the forest, it was sure death for the three genin and Kakashi if they stayed at their current location. They solemnly decided to carry Kakashi till they could find someone who could wake him from his frightful slumber.

Before they departed, Sasuke wisely told the other two, that they should burn the tents, and any evidence that had been there. Naruto, who had who had spent hours building it, was enraged.

Nevertheless, after ignoring Naruto's screaming and constant protests, the beautiful tents were ruthlessly destroyed by Sasuke's fireball jutsu. Naruto returned to his depressed mood, thinking of the things that are precious to him, being whisked away. He shuddered thinking about all the things he holds dear, the things he has worked his whole life to gain. He shed a single tear, as his mind came across all of the bonds he has made, and the people who have become precious to him.

He instantly thought of Kakashi, his sensei who had been wounded so severly.

Thinking of Sasuke, who had already become so dark, the blonde sighed, heavyhearted.

Not much got him down, but he couldn't stomach the thought of loosing his loved ones.

Naruto stopped, nearly falling off of a treebranch. He looked ahead, searching for the kunoichi who had insisted on helping his clones carry the suprizingly heavy jounin.

The genin sped forwards, towards the rest of the team. Grasping Sakura by the wrist, he pulled her out from underneath Kakashi. The pinkette shot Naruto a confused look, wondering what excuse he had this time. Her teammate simply looked back, and spoke a few words.

"Sakura, I will protect you." Naruto breathed, before bounding ahead, determined to beat Sasuke's speeds.

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Two miles away, the Akatsuki members could not find the few genin who had stood up against them. Not being great trackers, they easily got lost from the battle site. That particular miserable day, they suddenly smelt smoke, and speedily climbed to the treetops to see what the fire that they smelt was looked to where the pillar of smoke was coming from, and concluded that that was where the four leaf ninja were. Burning with revenge, they sped off, readying their attack plan, vowing to leave no stone unturned till they had their heads.

They leaped through the forest in the direction of the newly made fire, hoping to find someone to kill, or better yet, the girl who had been taken from their clutches by an enraged genin with a reddish glow surrounding him. They had been scared of the mad ninja, but they were ready this time. They were hired to do a job, and they would do it, no matter what the cost.

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura walked through the forest at a considerably slower pace than the Akatsuki opponents. Kakashi's weight seemed to be bearing down on Sasuke and Sakura, so the silent Naruto relieved his crush.

Naruto took over, and he noticed how heavy the stretcher was. He had never realized how heavy Kakashi actually was. He grinned, remembering all the good times of team seven, and frowned when he remembered the thousand years of pain Kakashi had given him recently. His bottom still ached horribly. The blonde haired genin didn t know what particular direction Sasuke was leading him on, and he inquired.

"Sasuke, where are we going?" the curious blonde asked loudly.

"Naruto! Keep it down! We are trying to find civilization!" Sasuke said, hushed.

"Oh, well Kakashi told me that water always leads to civilization, so we should follow that stream!" Naruto said, proud of himself.

Sasuke, surprised he knew anything, didn't bother to tell him that they had been following the stream for over an hour.

Sakura, who could not believe the stupidity of Naruto, face palmed.

Sasuke who had always been on the alert, always became paranoid when a branch snapped, or something of the sort. Naruto and Sakura kept reassuring him that it wasn't the Akatsuki and his brother. Sasuke agreed with them, but never completely stopped listening. Suddenly Sasuke looked up to see shadows darting from tree to tree above them.

"Get down!" Sasuke whispered fiercely to Naruto and Sakura behind him.

"Sasuke! This is no time for a break!" Naruto complained loudly.

"Gah!" Sasuke said, as the shadows stopped, and turned around. Sakura and Sasuke looked at Naruto with fire in their eyes.

"whoops." Naruto whispered, realizing what he had done.

Sasuke stealthily climbed the nearest tree, and readied his sharingan. Sakura rushed Kakashi to safety, and threw one kunai after the other in strategic locations to make a sufficient trap for the opponents. Naruto, dumbfounded at the efficiency of his comrades, had a clever idea, and rushed up to Sasuke to see if it would work.

About two minutes later, The Akatsuki had formed an agreement on their tactics, deciding that the genin were too exhausted and outnumbered to put up a large fight. Eying the small river flowing besides them, the Akatsuki subordinates wanted to finish the fight with one jutsu.

They thought of the perfect one, one that didn't require much chakra. "Suiton, bakusi shoha!" They all shouted simultaneously, and the water from the large creek stirred. Adding more of their chakra, the Akatsuki bandits sprang into the air, avoiding the dense wave of water that was packed tight with chakra.

The Akatsuki members landed on the damp ground, and scanned the area for corpses.

"Hn." Sasuke grunted with more volume than usual, to catch the opponents attention. The enemy stared sharply up into the branches, which Sasuke smirked at. Sakura suddenly dove from her treebranch perch, and smashed her foot into the ground.

While someone who mastered this jutsu would have shattered the earth, Sakura's weakened version was enough to build a thick cloud of dust and dirt. With the Akatsuki disabled, Sakura ran along the route she mapped to escape, and met up with her teammates.

Hours later, team seven was still struggling with the heavy Kakashi, as they ran alongside the dry creek bed.

Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke were exhausted, and were teetering close to chakra exhaustion too. Sasuke cursed his teammates silently. If Naruto hadn't wasted so much chakra on pampering their weakest teammate, he could solve this problem with shadow clones. Sakura signaled for a short break, to rest their strained muscles and lungs.

The genin seemed to have run out of breath indefinitely, and Naruto utterly hated it.

Still panting, Sasuke heard footsteps. He thought he had heard three or four people running beside the creek bed in the opposite direction. Nearly out of chakra, Sasuke activated his sharingan, and jumped around a bend in the river, to fight whomever was there. Sasuke gasped at the sight. Three women were there, walking down the dry creek bed. Further into the distance, smoke rose from fires in a small village.

Sasuke smiled, and fainted from the lack of energy. While he was falling, one of the girls rushed forward and caught him, yelling something Sasuke could not understand, at the other girls. Sasuke, half asleep pointed to the direction he came from and mumbled a warning. "They're... over... there."

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1.03.01


	5. Chapter 5

Naruto awoke, opening one eye to look at his surroundings. He was in a white room, that stunk of death and disease. He turned his head, to find three other beds, where his teammates lied. His eyes lingered over Sakura, admiring her beauty even with the chakra additives injected into her body. He thought of Sasuke, but knew he was to strong to be hurt much.

Naruto had awoken first, because of his accelerated healing rate. He decided to sit between his teammates, not only to keep them safe, but also to watch Sakura without being slapped. It was she who had stirred next, having not worked as hard as the dark genin.

"Hm? Naruto?" she asked, still tired. "Watch Sasuke-kun, I'm going to find a nurse."

Naruto watched in awe as she walked away with her usual dainty walk. She hadn't slapped him in day's, and Naruto didn't want that to end. He obeyed her request, and diligently watched Sasuke.

Sakura stumbled into the room moments later, her body heaving, and tears staining her porcelain skin. Naruto looked up, ready to greet "Sakura-chan," but stopped when he saw her. Naruto felt the all too familiar pang, seeing her hurting. He immediately stood, prepared to comfort her in any way possible. She gladly accepted the hug that was offered, and settled into Naruto's warm body.

"Are you alright, Sakura-chan?" asked Naruto, in a surprisingly soothing voice.

"It- it's Kakashi-sensei." she sniffed, and Naruto urged her to continue. "They say... they say he's going to die."

"What!" the blonde shouted, making Sasuke groan. "Could you keep it down? I'm trying to sleep." he mumbled.

"Shut up, teme! Kakashi-sensei is dying!"

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The three genin ran through the long hallway, determined to see their sensei.

"I'm going to go see the nurse, stay here." Naruto said, tilting his head towards his teammates.

Two genin sat by Kakashi's bed, worriedly speaking. "I hope Naruto gets back soon, I didn't think Kakashi was hurt this badly." said Sakura in a whisper. Sasuke just nodded gravely.

As if on cue, the door opened, and Naruto poked his head into the room. The blonde beckoned for his teammates to meet him in the hallway, to give Kakashi peace. Naruto had sat on the hospital bench, carrying a small pile of forms and notes. The genin gathered around, glancing around the sheets for valuable info.

Sasuke spoke first. "There, a date at the top. September...fourteenth." he said, straining to read the tiny print. Sakura nodded, but Naruto looked startled.

'The fourteenth! that means we slept for three days straight! I've never taken so long to heal.' thought Naruto, reminding himself to have a chat with his red furred occupant. Naruto perked up again, when Sakura said something.

"This form is full of complex medical terms, we can't find out about sensei without someone who understands them." she stated wisely, causing Naruto to grin in amazement of his teammates mind. "Great job, Sakura-chan!" he shouted, making Sakura twitch. "Naruto..." she began."This is a hospital! Shannaro!" she shouted, forgetting her own advice. Sasuke sighed. "From one idiot to another." he said, looking at his teammates.

Naruto didn't bat an eyelash. "Sasuke, Sakura is the smartest member of our group. She has Academy tests, and Kakashi's reports to prove it. If she's an Idiot, then what are you?" he said, straight faced, and with painfully sharp eyes.

Sakura interrupted, avoiding a war of words. "No matter what, we need to find someone to make sense of all this."

The words had no sooner escaped her soft lips, when a middle aged lady stormed down the quiet hallway, clad in a white overcoat. Sasuke leaned near Naruto. "Where exactly did you get those papers?" he asked, and Naruto's sheepish grin was all he needed to know. Naruto was in trouble.

"You. Blondie. Where did you get those forms?" she asked in a harsh tone, making Naruto pout. "Lay off, already. I took them, nobody would tell us what's happening to our sensei." he retorted.

Her gaze softened, looking at the Konoha headbands. "Hatake Kakashi, right? Come right this way." she spoke, letting Kakashi's reputation overrule the standard hospital procedures.

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"Listen up. I'm going to get in lots of trouble for this, I might lose my job. However, Kakashi is a well renowned shinobi, and his team deserves to know this." the nurse, Ai, lectured.

"Kakashi isn't of the Uchiha clan." she started, receiving a nod from Sasuke. "Therefore, the bloodline ability he uses in battle, his sharingan, is a scam." she continued, and the genin gasped softly, in unison.

"I'll make it simple. In humans, strong abilities, especially eye techniques, take thousands of years to form. Of course, the progress of these 'lines of power', are transferred from parent to child. This is why clans remain clans, to preserve this." Naruto and Sasuke listened closely; Sakura had learned this from her frequent visits to Konoha's library.

"In the time it takes for the bloodline ability to form, that families DNA has adapted to the strain it puts on their bodies." Ai lectured. "What Kakashi has, on the other hand, is a kekkei genkai, which has been forced into his body." here the medic paused, giving the three genin to take in all they have heard so far.

"To make a long matter short, the amount of chakra Kakashi spent to fight in this last battle, it forced the eye into complete dependence, like growing a rose in a desert." Ai paused again, this time to wipe a tear. "If this process continues, he will rot from the inside out." The nurse looked up, to see three ninja sickened beyond belief. It was Sakura who recovered from her stupor first, and politely thanked the medic, before shuffling out of the room, with her teammates following glumly behind.

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"Alright team, we need to save Kakashi-sensei." shouted Naruto, pacing back and forth in front of his team. "We need to figure out his sharingan, and his chakra, and what his face looks like, and everything!" he continued, to the disapproval of his comrades.

"Naruto, quit goofing around, this is serious." Stated Sakura, while standing up and pushing Naruto onto the couch. "Now, what do we know about the situation? Kakashi-sensei's eye is giving him problems. Maybe just take it out?" she questioned, taking on Naruto's pacing movements.

"No no no, that's his prized possession! it's all his jutsu!" Naruto retorted.

"It's either his jutsu, or his life, Naruto." Sakura stated bluntly.

"But we're ninja! we have to see underneath the underneath! there must be something..." Naruto pleaded.

Sakura scowled. "Fine, we can keep trying. Now, what do we know about sharingan?" she asked.

"Well, uh, it's super cool!" he shouted, and Sasuke let out a single chuckle. The two genin looked towards him with awe. he hadn't said anything, but he knew more about the sharingan then anyone.

"Mangekyo." he breathed the single word, and gazed at the questioning looks on his teammates faces, urging him to continue.

"Mangekyo sharingan, is the ultimate eye technique the sharingan can upgrade to." From what I've heard..." here Sasuke paused, thinking of his older brother's words." you have to kill you're best friend to upgrade to these eyes.

Naruto looked at Sasuke, spaced out. "Okay, but what does that mean?" he asked, dumbfounded at how an even stronger sharingan was going to helps save Kakashi.

"Simple. It will drive our sensei to a new level of excellence, improving his body with the eye." Sasuke said. "There is side affects, but its literally do or die, in this situation." he finished.

The genin glanced at each other, looking for a decision in their teammates' eyes.

"We can't risk Kakashi's life." Sakura voiced the united opinion.

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"Team." The head nurse caught her subordinates' attention. "Team, whether we like it or not, we are going to have to remove the eye." she said, and loud grumbles filled the room. "We will take a fifteen minute break, and then the operation will commence..." These words were no sooner out of the nurses mouth, than the room's occupants hit the floor, instantly asleep.

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Team seven raced along the city streets. They were determined to get to the hospital, to tell the medics before it was too late.

"Sasuke, how are we going to get the mangeyo sharingan? Kakashi hasn't killed his best friend, has he?" Naruto asked.

"No, dobe, not that I know of, but, he got his first sharingan one way, it should work again." the dark genin stated. "And, Naruto, it's mangekyo." he corrected.

Sakura remained in silence. There were so many risks, so many wild cards in this plan. Although she was paranoid, she also realized that the other option was assured death, or the loss of his sharingan. With the reputation he had built up, and no jutsu to back it up, Kakashi would be heavily targeted.

'No, the only option was to try for this new sharingan.' Sakura did her best to believe in her teammate. Teammates, she corrected herself.

"Guy's, where are we going to get the mangekyo eye?" she asked.

"I Don't Know!" Sasuke shouted, turning to face the pink haired kunoichi.

Naruto watched on, waiting to back up Sakura, if need be.

Sakura, however, just smiled sadly, not wanting to depress the team further. Sasuke's plan was falling apart, and he knew it.

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Tsunade brought her head down hard, snapping the desk in two. Half empty sake bottles flew from the impact, splattering shelves and walls. Tsunade picked up the medical report she had received just that morning, and paced around the room.

Shizune walked in through the office door, and stood waiting for a command. "Tsunade-sama, I could go there, to assist his recovery."

"No, no, no. this proceedure is far beyond your level, maybe even above mine." Tsunade stated, renouncing her apprentice's idea.

"My grandfather, the first hokage, was very close with the Uchiha clan, he knew the sharingan very well. iIf we could find a scroll in his library..." here she tapered off. "No, Kakashi isn't even Uchiha."

"Maybe Jiraiya-sama could use one of his seals?" Shizune suggested. At this, the perverted white haired man nimbly swung in from a window. "Hello, ladies!" he said energetically. "Like Tsunade-hime had said, Kakashi is on a level on his own… Not quite Uchiha, but not quite anything else, either." He said, growing serious. "To form a seal for this man, it would take years."

"But, I don't mind going, for moral support anyway. One of my spies is operating in that area, so i need to be heading that way sooner or later." Jiraiya said, excited about the women in yet another village.

"So, Hime. You look stressed, would you like a massage?" Jiraiya winked suggestively at the busty blonde.

Tsunade rubbed her temples, going on small circles with her fingers. "Absolutly, Jiraiya, just don't do anything that I will make you regret." she said, welcoming the toad sannin's rather magical hands.

Tsunade had been lulled to sleep, by Jiraiya's tender strokes. Jiraiya ignored the audiance of Shizune, as he snaked an arm down to grope Tsunade's left breast. Once he had achieved his goal, however, Tsunade had already woken up, and flipped him across the room.

"I'll leave tomorrow, then." The perverted man said, escaping the room as quickly as possible.

"Then go." Tsunade said disgustedly, leaving the pervert to his own business.

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Outside of the village gates, a man listened into the sannin's conversation, using the acute hearing he had developed through years of ninja training.

"Shit, this complicates things." he said to himself, plunging into the forest.

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The charcoal eyed genin kicked open the door to the hospital, hoping to make a dramatic entrance. His plan was foiled, however, because all the occupants of that room lay on the floor fast asleep.

"Listen up!" screamed Sakura, which had the desired affect. The medics sprung from the floor, and lined up, wondering why these kids had wrenched them from their peaceful slumber.

Sasuke took over from here. "I am an Uchiha, The last that stayed loyal to our clan." he spoke, thinking of the man who put them into this mess.

"I know of an eye technique, which would solve all of our problems." The problem is, we need to keep sensei alive until we find one." the Uchiha said.

"We will find one, even if I have to take out my own eye, and add Naruto's huge amounts of chakra to it." Sasuke vowed. Here, Naruto perked up.

"That's where I come in, if one of the medics is willing to help me, I can channel my chakra into Kakashi, to keep him alive." The blonde shinobi said.

"And, Sasuke-kun and I will find the eye." Sakura said; glad to finally be alone with the raven haired genin. Sasuke didn't know how exactly he would find an eye from an extinct clan, but he would try. Sasuke knew the dangers of going after an eye, but he couldn't conceive the horrors of what was lurking in the forest.


	6. Chapter 6

-Note- Hey guys, its Joey! we're gonna have to publish this one a bit early, Jon is going away for the weekend. We will get back on track next week, expect a chap' Thursday! Review please! Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, only cheap Naruto memorabilia. **

Sasuke, having said his heroic speech, dashed out of the hospital that held Kakashi.

He was burning with ambition to find the eye, though he was well aware of the challenge that lay ahead; only he and Itachi held the bloodline ability of the famed Uchiha.

Sasuke pondered the possibilities of where to find the eyeball, and a thought came across his mind. 'What if an Uchiha was outside of Konoha at the time of the massacre?' This theory was brushed off as foolishness, Sasuke knew better. 'Itachi doesn't make mistakes.'

Sasuke was running out of options, with only two pairs of the sharingan eyes existing in the ninja world, as far as he knew.

Sasuke about his situation, knowing what he must do. The curse seal was the only thing he had that might be able to help him acquire a sharingan eye. He would get it... from Itachi.

Of course, Itachi was not going to roll over and give the eye away, Sasuke would need to pry it from his cold, dead body.

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Time flew, and the sun was setting outside the hospital window. A certain pink haired girl, however, couldn't enjoy the beauty, she was far too busy examining the medical files the nurses had left, neatly stacked on top of a bare desk.

Sakura was confused by all the long medical terms, although she was the smartest of the rookie nine. Shikamaru had the best tactical prowess and overall wisdom, but she had far greater knowledge, book-smarts as Naruto would say. The tough vocabulary was really getting to her, and since she wasn't an important factor in Kakashi's recovery, none of the nurses would bother to help her.

Currently, Sakura was trying to read through them by searching through an old dictionary for the definitions. The pinkette thanked God that there was a library in this tiny settlement.

"Gah!" Sakura exclaimed, frustrated by the words used in the huge report, that described the details of Kakashi's medical state. Sakura willed herself on, however, completing a page, and trading it for the next one on the desk.

The pinkette went through hours of sleep depriving frustration, every word seemed longer, and harder to find.

Finally, Sakura shut the old Dictionary in anger. She had only translated the first ten pages or so, while in the complete report there were forty five. Sakura scowled, and brought her head down hard on the wooden desk.

Moments later, Naruto stumbled out of one of the public washrooms that were in the hospital, looking dead tired. He made his way to the room he assumed Sakura was in, and found the pink themed kunoichi fast asleep, with her head on the desk.

Naruto smiled softly, she had been there since early that morning. "Sakura-chan." He spoke, tapping her shoulder lightly.

Sakura was trained in the arts of a ninja, and the light touch made her snap up, fully awake and ready for combat. she leapt over the desk, knocking the chair she had occupied in the process. Turning, she saw Naruto, his face was contorted from the concentration it took to keep awake, and his eyes drooped heavily.

"Naruto?" The pinkette asked in confusion. "Why are you so tir..."

Sakura was cut off, Naruto had brought a finger to his lips, motioning for her to be silent. He dragged himself to where she stood, and produced a package from his jacket. The blonde genin placed this into Sakuras arms, before collapsing, falling into a very deep sleep.

Sakura put the package aside, and grasped Naruto by his armpits, dragging him away to an unoccupied hospital bed. After throwing a nearby blanket on to cover the exhausted boy, Sakura moved back into the main room, where the package was waiting.

What Sakura found was amazing, and she had to walk to keep the blood in her head. She held before her an exact copy of the medical sheets, with the large words replaced by definitions. Sakura read over, nodding solemnly. Kakashi had one week to live.

Sakura dropped the bundle of papers, and they spread out in the hallway of the hospital. The pinkette propped herself up on her elbows, and she looked back at what she had tripped over.

There was a stack of dictionaries.

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Sasuke, was running through trees for the umpteenth time that week, searching desperatly for signs of his brother.

'Not here, of course.' He thought, passing an area where Itachi was never seen. The dark genin had kept tabs on his brother, demanding access to all updates to the ANBU files. He had checked all the hotspots around the area, and hadn't heard a word spoken about the older Uchiha. Sensibly, Sasuke thought to retrace his path back to the battle site, where he may be able to detect his brother from there.

"Its back to the battlesite, eh...?" Sasuke muttered with disgust as he changed his direction. Just as he turned, he thought he saw a shadow flash through the limbs directly in front of him. He realized that it was either a figment of his imagination, or a trap. Just to be safe, Sasuke skidded to a halt to examine the area he had seen the shadow.

As he squinted, to focus on anything near, his eyes widened as he saw light reflect for a second off of a thin metallic wire. He spun around to see a shadow dash around behind him. The realization hit him as he recognized the trap. It was the trap he lured Manda into... the same trap he had been lured into.

"Ku so! Itachiiii!" Sasuke growled loudly as he saw the flash of a kunai in flight to the lever string.

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Back at the hospital, Things were going slowly. Naruto had woken from his sleep, and felt his normal energy return.

He reclined in a chair, watching over Sakura and sensei. Sakura herself was in a poor state, she had read the whole report, and now had given u any thought of being unemotional, she cried hard, dampening the hospital uniform of the jounin she was mourning.

"Sakura, that's enough." came a stern voice, and Sakura turned to see Naruto had come up behind her. "Don't you have any faith? Right now, we all need to believe in each other, Sasuke _can_ find the eye, and Kakashi-sensei _will_ wake up."

Sakura stared into Naruto's eyes, trying to find the truth behind this empowering speech. "You... You're right, Naruto. Thank you."

Here Naruto's mood changed, and he leaned forward, coming to face Sakura close. "Anything for my Sakura-chaaaan." he said in a goofy voice. Sakura's eye twitched, and she acted on instinct, pushing Naruto forcefully away from her.

Sometimes, Sakura didn't know her own strength, and Naruto was sent into a nearby wall. He dipped into a state of unconsciousness, and Sakura walked towards him, a crison blush adorning her face.

'...my...Sakura-chan?' She asked herself, wondering if Naruto truly meant those words, was she his? Sakura pulled at the blondes body, determined to fan it back to reality, ofr whaever she was supposed to do, to wake him up. A pair of women in uniform - Sakura assumed they were nurses - rushed in, and scowled at the pink genin, before carrying Naruto's limp body away.

Sakura plopped into a chair, with new determination not to hit Naruto... and this time she would keep her promise.

Naruto was only unconscious for a moment, and he awoke a minuite or so later, to find needles and tubes connecting him to machines. He was still feeling light headed, and began to remove the needles, and free himself from the uncomfterable bed.

A long monotone beep went off, and Naruto jumped up in panic. He wasn't the most intelligent being, but he had spent enough time in hospitals to know what that meant. He wildly spun his head, wondering if he had ripped anyone else in the process of removing his own.

Once again luck was against the blonde, and he knocked the back of his head on the outstretched arm of a life support machine.

Apparently, the medical staff moniters the readings of those fancy machines, because moments later a doctor ran into the room, thinking that the termination of Naruto's heart rate reading meant his death. He powered up a D-ranked lightening jutsu, and pressed his charged palm to the blonde genin's chest, acting as a defibrillator.

The fox would have none of this, and before long the doctor saw a dark red chakra build around the boy. Naruto opened his eyes, and yet they weren't the cerulean blue eyes that he normally wore. The medic had never seen Naruto use the fox's power, but if he had, he would know that this wasn't it either. The eyes NAruto had were not blue, or a slitted crimson, but purely blood red.

Naruto was losing his sanity, and the medical ninja had no time to avoid the fist of Konoha's genin.

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Sasuke pouted. It had been Itachi, he was sure of it. but, the dark genin was suspended in the upper reaches of the forest, wrapped securely in a net. He had used every technique he could think of, but the net had been coated with chakra.

Sasuke mentally kicked himself in the head for being sloppy, after all, what was he training for? Sasuke had to find his brother; Kakashi's life depended on it. Sasuke thought his brother would attack again, but he was wrong. Itachi had disappeared. From his position, Sasuke realised that the most useful thing he could do, was find where The Akatsuki member had fled to, and somehow alert his team.

He began to scour the area, and found soon after a partly broken tree branch. Looking closely, Sasuke noticed that all the branches in a certain path had exploded, shattered because of the amount of chakra pushed into them.

The boy noticed one other thing, and that is that whoever had set the trap had just dectivated the chakra barrier surrouning it.

Sasuke could escape, and he wondered why anyone would want to stall him.

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Sakura woke up in the hospital bed she had slept in since being in the village, to a racket created by the nurses.

To Sakura, they were a blur moving around, and frantically screaming about the "blonde that was glowing red!"

Sakura snapped to reality when she realized that Naruto was using that hidden power that was seen whenever he was stressed.

She knew she had to try to stop him before he got too powerful and destroyed the entire hospital, and maybe even the village! Sakura ran out of the damaged room and up a flight of stairs, only to find a raging and ultra-powerful Naruto running around, and wildly destroying absolutely everything he touched. Naruto turned a corner, and began to sprint down a very long corridor.

Sakura stood her ground, even when realizing that it was her, that was at the end of the corner. She reached into her pouch, remembering that she had something for such an emergency.

Naruto kept his composure, running towards the pink haired girl.

Sakura took a breath of concentration, and lunged forward with a palm outstretched. Naruto rammed right into her hand, sending her across the room and into a wall at the end of the hall. The blond crumpled, and began to lose the power of Kyuubi's cloak. A rather large doctor dragged him into another room, taking note of the seal that was pressed onto Naruto, which read 'suppression.'

Sakura was worried about what she'd done to Naruto. A week ago, she thought she'd be glad to have his annoying self out of her life, but she never knew that she would miss him this much. Sakura once again fell down into the depths of depression.

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Meanwhile, while Sasuke was running back to the village, he smelt smoke, and a few minutes later, saw that there was a pillar of smoke coming from the hospital.

Sasuke growled as he increased his pace toward kakashi's resting place. He took a great chakra fuelled bounce into the entryway of the once notable and now damaged hospital.

He saw the extinguished fire was coming from the floor Kakashi was on. 'No!' Sasuke thought, while leapng up the stairway towards Kakashi's floor. Sasuke burst through the door as He saw Naruto being rushed through a damaged hallway toward an emergency room. Sasuke cursed his brother inwardly for causing him so much pain.

With a sick feeling in his throat, he began to search for Sakura. "Sakura!" He screamed desperately. After a few minutes of shoving his way through workers doctors and nurses he finally found Sakura sitting on the ground with her face buried in her hands crying. Sasuke rushed to her side. "Sakura! What did my brother do!" Sakura waited impatiently for her reply.

Sakura rose and slowly admitted "I did it." She misunderstood what damage the raven haired genin spoke of, her mind was on Naruto alone.

Sasuke stepped back astonished, "What?" Sasuke ran towards the exit of the building, still shocked by what his comrade said. He stumbled out of the doorway deep in thought and shock and he ran into a tall figure. As he looked up into the man's face, he gasped.

"Danzo!" He exclaimed.

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After a few hours of conversation with his comrades, with the exception of Naruto, the bandaged man had been informed of the earlier events of the day. Sakura explained the situation when Naruto turned had gone into that powered up mode, and she had to stop him.

Sakura left out the part where she punched Naruto in the face, for she feared she would get into trouble with the head of the ANBU black ops, which was sat right in front of her.

Sasuke recaptured the events of the day in the forest, he thought he saw his brother around, and he tracked him to the village. Danzo winced, ever so slightly when Sasuke said that, but relaxed after he heard that statement. Sasuke noticed, but saw no reason for calling him out on his being uncomfortable with that.

Both genin explained the original fight of the mission, and Kakashi's medical problems.

They wen't to Naruto's room, where they learned that the battered young boy would eventually recover, but in their words "only because the red chakra protected him and healed him quickly."

After doing being briefed from Danzo, Sasuke and Sakura proceeded to Kakashi's room to check on his condition. They politely asked asked a few of the the pretty nurses who gathered there, and the nurses looked down at the awful news. "Danzo-sama," They adressed him personally, disregarding the genin.

"I'm so sorry but Kakashi's condition is getting worse... it seems his system is crashing faster than we expected. If we don't get him a sharingan right away, he could die."

Sakura and Sasuke was devastated by this announcement, knowing there was nothing they could do to prevent this from happening. Danzo however, didn't even flinch. He reached under his cloak and withdrew a glass jar. "This shall be it!" He exclaimed in pride. Sasuke's eyes widened as he realized what was in the Jar. The Jar contained a perfectly preserved sharingan.


	7. Chapter 7

NOTE. Hey, Jon here again with the latest installment. Me and Joe have been a little bit rushed lately, but we manage. Anyway, this chapter isn't much for action, but it should advance the storyline a bit. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, I'm doin' this for free.  
**

Danzo stood before a congregation of medical specialists, doctors and nurses which had gathered to hear the aged man speak. He had been ranting for a while, asking questions about the health conditions of his fellow leaf shinobi. He had instructed the medic team that cared for Kakashi personally, but now he requested that they all gather together.

Danzo had searched the files that were handed down to the hokage's, and found the village nearest the mission grounds. There was clippets of information included in the folder, which Danzo skimmed over, wary of the possible traps and defense systems.

This particular village had no name, as it was on no maps outside of the land of fire, and outdated war sketches. The village had been made as an outpost during the second great shinobi war, to house the medics which stayed to nurse ninja. When the war ended, and most of the outposts closed, this one thrived. Trade with Konoha had ended, but the old generation taught the new, and they eventually gathered their own herbs in order to continue their medical practices and research.

The room erupted in applause, eager to receive the huge shipment of high quality medical supplies Danzo promised. The bandaged man smirked. 'I'll have their vote.' he thought, stressing "their" with a chuckle.

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Sasuke studied the bandaged man with his sharingan. Sure, he had saved Kakashi, and became the hero of this small village, but something wasn't adding up. Sasuke had never met Danzo in person, but felt so familiar watching him.

The dark genin glanced towards his teammates, and scoffed. Naruto leaned back in his chair, as clueless and blissful as ever. Sakura, on the other hand, was stealing glances at Naruto. Sasuke turned into his original position, snickering under his breath.

"Something funny, Sasuke?"

Sasuke's eyes widened, and he spun on his heels.

"Kakashi-sensei!" he yelled, seeing his sensei grinning so widely that he almost split his mask.

Naruto glanced over his shoulder. "What are you talking abou..." "Kakashi!" He exclaimed, leaping towards the recovered jounin. Sakura, on the other hand, had different plans. She slapped at Naruto's outstretched arms. "Narutooo, sensei needs to get better before you go so rough!" The pinkette exclaimed, caring for Kakashi's well being.

"It's quite alright, Sakura. If I wasn't well, I wouldn't be here." Kakashi spoke uncharacteristically gleefully, but then grew serious. "I hope you spent this time well, and didn't just mourn for me. That goes for all of you." the jounin said, and glanced around. His students apparently all agreed, Sasuke looked to the side and mumbled a response, while Naruto and Sakura nodded vigorously.

Kakashi gave an eye smile. "Well, then lets all get some lunch, after that I need to talk to you."

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The team split up for lunch, as usual. Kakashi could never truly understand why they always did that, but he put most of the blame on himself. Something about a prankster, a feminist, and a stoic onlooker didn't agree with Kakashi's habits. 'Sasuke and I, we could never stop "Them" if they ever got their hands on icha icha.' the masked man thought.

At this moment, he was forgetting to nourish himself for one reason. Kakashi had to find a rare, and valuable set of items. Namely, icha icha volumes 1-17. He rushed to the library, hoping to achieve his goal before the nurses dragged him back to his bed.

Kakashi had to chuckle. He was becoming more like Naruto every day, he had even broken out of the hospital!

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Half a city away, a blonde boy also ran. "Is there no ramen in this entire village!" he yelled towards the heavens. How he lived without ramen while worrying about his sensei, Naruto never knew.

The day seemed to drag on, and he couldn't find either of his teammates. The fox warden sighed. Naruto only wanted to go home to his loving restaurant owners. And woo Sakura. And defeat Sasuke... And maybe find some ramen too, while he was at it.

Naruto smiled, thinking of how nice his life had turned out. Although he never had much, the genin thrived off the company of his friends. This is where he would always surpass Sasuke, Naruto mused. It was the advantage to having nothing, everything you got was precious. His only food became his favorite food, and the friends he made became family.

Grinning at his own joyful thoughts, Naruto opted to take Kakashi's advice to improve, and sped off to try to find Sasuke to train with.

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Sakura sat comfortably in a meadow near the village gates. She was bored out of her pink covered mind, now that her newly made friends had left for lunch. The kunoichi had to hand it to Naruto; playing ninja was fun!

She knew that her time could be spent more productively, she knew she should be in the library, she knew that frolicking in a field with wide eyed children was not the way a kunoichi behaved.

But damn it all, she liked it!

Sakura stood up, and brushed the grass off of her ninja uniform. It was time for her break to end, and she couldn't help but wonder what sensei wanted to tell everybody.

'And, I hope Naruto-ku...' Here Sakura stopped in her tracks, shutting down her thought as well.

'Nani? what was I thinking!' The pink haired girl ran ahead, before her inner self could answer that question.

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Sasuke stood at the waters edge, glad to find a pond in the small village. For someone so fire based in combat, the dark genin loved the water.

He thought back to why, exactly, he fell in love with the liquid. The memories Sasuke held of his family, and the entire clan, before that fateful night were so vivid in Sasuke. This, was the reason Sasuke hated his brother. He was never too close with members of his clan, the police force of Konoha was much too secretive to share friendship with a boy.

All the same, Itachi had taken away the only people who had ever seen him as more than "Uchiha-san", the next generation of the sharingan.

Sasuke gazed over the water. 'A pond much like this, father said, he said to me he believed I could surpass Itachi.' Sasuke thought to himself, finally understanding why he loved the water. The purple clad genin watched silently, and in each glimmer of the sun's reflection, he saw family, courage, and respect.

"One day, Itachi!" Sasuke started, ready to renew his vows of revenge. "One day, I may just forgive you."

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Kakashi sat casually on a rooftop, waiting for the rest of team seven to show. He wasn't exactly an earlybird, but he had his reasons for being so late back in Konoha. After all, he had Obito's grave to visit, and he had to treat Anko with her daily makeout session. Kakashi drooled at the thought of his reward for coming back safely, although he was slightly worried about his new eye. He hadn't taken Obito's out, the medics combined the two eyes.

The jounin reclined, all the while watching for the first sign of his students, which would undoubtedly be the outrageus colors they chose to wear, orange and purple and pink. "Oh my." Kakashi added, then chuckled at his own joke.

"Something funny, sensei?"

The silver haired shinobi turned, and eyed the smirk on his student's face. Kakashi mentally facepalmed, he was off his game if Sasuke could sneak behind him like that.

"Hello, Sasuke. Here before the others, I see?" the jounin asked, not very eager for any response.

"I don't know where they are. Should I?" Sasuke inquired, trying to remember whether Kakashi had said anything about watching over his teammates.

"No, no. Take a seat, we have to wait for them to show up."

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Naruto jumped from rooftop to rooftop, taking in his surroundings.

He had felt that awfully powerful aura yet again, and it was driving him insane! The blonde genin compared the feeling to that of a dull headache, something that you know is there, and it bothers you, yet you can't understand it, let alone get rid of it.

He had tried running in circles, to see where he felt it the strongest. This didn't work, it moved each time. He had tried to ignore the feeling, whistling away. Every time the powerful aura surged, however, Naruto felt it necessary to whistle a bit louder.

To anyone onlooking, Konoha's unpredictable shinobi looked rather foolish, and it was a good thing he was on the rooftops, high above everyone's view.

Naruto had long since decided that searching for the source of the chakra was foolish, and didn't want to make anyone wait. He rushed towards the rooftop where the rest of the team waited. He arrived, to find that everyone else had assembled. Sasuke chatted with Kakashi, while Sakura fingered the petals of a flower she had found earlier.

"So, what's this all about?" Naruto asked bluntly.

"I've got a new toy." spoke Kakashi in a tone he usually reserved for his smut.

"Well, show us already." Sakura interrupted, getting straight to the point.

"Oh, I will." Kakashi muttered, adding a dark chuckle as an effect.

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Sasuke watched intensely, waiting to see the newest addition to the sharingan wielder's arsenal.

Kakashi spoke warily. "Now that I have new power, our teamwork will be out of sync. Our team will be re-doing the training that has brought us thus far, as a team."

"Oh, and we will be doing the bell test."

All three genin were astonished, and voiced the same opinion. "Again!"

Kakashi gave an eye smile. "Yes, but that comes later. For now, I want Sasuke to spar with Sakura. Naruto, come here for a minute."

Naruto walked towards his sensei, an eyebrow cocked. "What is it, Kakashi-sensei?"

"Didn't the nurses talk to you at all? Fine, I'll explain myself. My body will work in overdrive for weeks." The jounin paused, searching Naruto's eyes for a clue. "You have the highest reserves of this team, You're chakra level is more than mine." Kakashi sighed. Naruto didn't seem to be able to put the pieces together. "Naruto, you will be my crutch. I will be teaching you a jutsu that may become useful later in you're life, and will definatly be useful now." Another pause...

"You will learn to transfer your chakra."

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Sakura dodged a kunai that came her way, and sent one of her own in response. The pinkette had been sparing with Sasuke for over an hour now, while Naruto and Kakashi were alone doing... whatever they were doing.

Both Sasuke and Sakura were completely clueless to the fact that Naruto was training, improving at an extraordinary rate. Kakashi had been trying to put a balance, a harmony, between both of their chakra supplies. This would allow some of Naruto's chakra to fuel the eye, until it was accustomed to Kakashi's body. The jounin had read a file on the mangekyo eye, and understood that given time, it would fully adapt, unlike the basic sharingan.

Sakura was downtrodden, she felt very weak seeing the rookie of the year deflect and dodge her attacks without ease. Her plan so far was simple enough, "Punch, kick, kunai, genjutsu." repeat. "Punch, kick, kunai, genjutsu."

The evident problem with this attack pattern, is that it didn't flow. First Sakura needed to be in close range, then back off to throw, then back off even further to try and defend her genjutsu. The moves didn't flow, and Sakura knew it.

Sakura was ashamed. She was one of the most intelligent minds to ever come from the academy, and she knew it. She had all the smarts to create a fireproof plan, yet she could never accomplish what she thought out.

"Never accomplish anything." Sakura spoke her mind, dropping to her knees.

"I'll never accomplish anything!" Sakura screamed into the forest. She watched as Sasuke plopped down, sitting on the ground and watching her temper fit without so much as batting an eye.

'It's always like this, I'm watching Sasuke. I need to train!' Sakura screeched in her mind.

**"Maybe, maybe you should stop watching Sasuke-kun?" **Inner Sakura stated the obvious.

'I can't just start over. Even Ino knows more jutsu than me, I know nothing at all.' Sakura replied.

**"Believe in yourself, Sakura. Others will follow your example."**

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"Hmm, no matter what we try, Kyuubi refuses to let go of any of it's chakra, or let yours out." Spoke Kakashi, rather peeved at the fox for its stubborn disposition.

"Well, he's never been too friendly, and is especially not fond of my family." Naruto said.

"Family? Naruto, what are you talking about?" asked a bewildered Kakashi.

"Oh, well, I guess..." Naruto started, a little ashamed of his previous remark. "I guess I just never had one, so I can consider all of you family."

Kakashi understood his statement. After his own father took his life, the silver haired sensei found comfort in the shinobi rules and regulations. At least this one found humans.

"So, Sasuke's like a brother, is that so?" Kakashi probed.

"Mhm, and you're like a father, baachan is like, well, a baachan. And Sakura-chan..."

"I see." said Kakashi with a nod.

"Anyway, isn't it time we get going? you're up to the trip back to Konoha, right? I'm out of ramen, a few more days and I'll go through withdrawals."

Kakashi nodded, and zipped away through the forest, towards the other two.

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Sakura inhaled sharply, and before long her knees were shaking.

No. This was the time that the girl needed to show her resolve, and she couldn't get stronger by wimping out. With both her minds blazing, Sakura stood firm, and reformed the ram seal.

The blue glow of chakra that surrounded her seeped into the ground, and a faint bluish hue could be seen forming a line.

She had been developing a jutsu of her own, something between Shikamaru and Gaaras jutsu. She would pump chakra into the ground, and then release discharges here and there. In theory, this would send a huge blast of force upwards, lifting her opponents of the ground.

Sakura could barely keep her eyes open, this jutsu needed a ton of pure chakra, and absolute control over it. For the most part, she had the control down, but it was in situations like this that it faltered. She was exhausted, and didn't have the stamina, or chakra reserves, to do much. Sakura finally gave in, and collapsed onto the forest floor.

Sakura was a thin girl, but the entire world seemed to shake, when she hit the ground with a thud.

Sakura's eyes got as big as saucers, when realization hit her. "The jutsu!"

The release of control over all the chakra she had poured into the ground triggered two things. First, It created a tremor so powerful that Kakashi and Naruto felt it in the hospital rooms where they were gathering the teams' belongings, and secondly, the strip of ground where Sakura had been transporting it was so mangled, that it created a huge could of dust. Sasuke thought that the only thing that could rival its size, was the "frog thing" he had seen Naruto summon.

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Kakashi felt two things from the hospital room where he and his blonde student were gathering up all of their supplies. First, he felt the shake, threatening to topple trees.

Secondly, he saw the cloud, and the only thing running through his mind was the Akatsuki.

"Naruto!" the silver jounin called. "Pack the rest of that shit into the scrolls, meet me at the northern border." With that, the man disappeared into a puff of smoke.

The cloud had caught wind, and wasn't going to come down naturally, so upon entering the scene with another puff, Kakashi began to form hand signs.

"Fuuton, hashiira!" He called, stretching his palm out like Gaara would to use his infamous jutsu.

A strong gust of wind erupted from his pores, which blew the dust far from the settlement. Kakashi saw Sakura fainted, and Sasuke sitting boredly, and put two and two together. "She did this?" He asked, turning to his dark student.

"Hn." came the sullen reply.

At that moment, Naruto hopped into the clearing from a branch, and was filled in on the details. The troop decided that now was the best time to leave for home, and Sakura was swung onto Kakashi's back.


	8. Chapter 8

Authors note: Hey guys, me again, back to give you another chapter of jongygy's and my sequel. Very sorry that this chapter is so short, but we have been falling behind. If you guys don't mind, Joey and I will take the last two weeks of December off from writing, for Christmas holidays. That way, we can also get caught up, and will soon be delvering full length chapters again. Chapter 9 will be coming out next week thursday, so be sure to check it out1 enjoy!

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything with a value level over nine thousaaaand! This includes Naruto.**

Chapter 8:**  
**

Kakashi walked along, chatting with his team. They walked rather casually, in no rush to return to Konoha. The village was a beautiful place, but out here in nature, this was a ninjas true element.

Kakashi glanced around cautiously. If being an ANBU captain taught him one thing, it was always to keep your guard up. He saw the approaching patch of forest, and recognized it immediately. It seemed as though Sakura recognized the forest as well, she was looking rather disarmed. Kakashi was always astounded at what Iruka, the academy teacher that had acted as homeroom teacher for the three genin under Kakashi's care, taught them.

"Sensei, isn't this... the wired forest?" Sakura asked unsteadily.

Kakashi nodded, knowing the hidden danger that could be lurking in this forest. The trees here had grown so full and thick, that the sunlight was rarely seen through the overhead foliage. During the third great shinobi war, whenever the balance of power was displaced, and enemies were able to invade the land of fire, this was a key place to put traps, for both sides of the army.

The nickname wired forest stuck, because the trees were laced in wires, prepared to set off still active traps.

Normally the jounin would have been fine with something like this, or even used it as a training exercise. Now, however, he knew that his team was nearly at their limits. It had been a very tiring week, from an army of Akatsuki, to his near death, to the Kyuubi's cloak. There was no way these genin were going in there unprotected.

It had been the Uchiha, the sharingan clan that had set the traps in the first place, probably because of their ability to avoid anything that backfired. Kakashi wasn't the most attentive at school, he had learned this tidbit from Obito Uchiha, who had been bragging his clansmen.

Kakashi did the sensible thing.

"Sasuke. Be on your guard, this is one of the most dangerous places in the fire country." He commanded, and watched as the dark genin ventured the first few steps of the forest.

"Sakura, you and Naruto stay here with me, to help out if anything goes wrong with the eye." he said, jerking a thumb in the direction of his forehead protector.

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In Konoha, the godaime hokage had just received a report, sent in by one of Jiraiya's spies. Her teammate could be a pig, but he knew what he was doing.

What frustrated the blonde, is that this report was just like any other.

_Jiraiya-sama._

_It gives me great joy to report the current standings of the criminal group "Akatsuki." _

_My post is in sector B-812, a small village in the rock country. I regret to inform you _

_that no action or movement has been seen in the tunnel opening that is located in _

_this sector. It would seem as though the movement of these terrorists have come to _

_a halt. Your loyal servant to the death.  
_

_Sector B-812, Abarume Boton, May 13, 20XX._

The hokage threw her fist into the nearest wall, shattering the drywall and knocking frames loose. before long, the busty blonde's faithful assistant had come to her rescue.

"Hokage-sama! What's the problem?"

"Shizune. Please explain to me how in the..." here, the godaime used a few choice words to emphasize her point. "...we managed to send one of our most valuable jounin, only for him to get his ass kicked by an organization that was never there in the first place!"

Tsunade saw the younger woman looking down and shame, and scowled. Shizune left the room to the sound of glass shattering.

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Kakashi thumbed the plate on his forehead protecter, prepared to use the new eye for the first time. He grinned through his mask, exited at the prospect of new power.

Slowly, the headband was lifted, and the jounin opened his eye for the genin to behold. It was black rings on a red backdrop, with a blood red pupil.

The children gasped in awe, but then something went wrong. The sharingan eye seemed to bug out, and it looked as though Kakashi couldn't close it. the silver haired jounin started to tremble, threatening to fall. His other eye opened, and Sasuke couldn't help but notice that it showed a lot of pain.

"Sensei, are you alri..." Sakura was cut off.

"Fuck!" Kakashi screamed, and fell onto his back.

All three kids gathered there were taken back. They had never heard Kakashi use profanities before, and they knew that he needed help.

Naruto, the group genius, pointed out the problem. "He must have hurt his eye!"

Sasuke shook his head. everyone could see that Kakashi was clawing at the recently implanted mangekyo, it was no secret that the pain came from the eye.

"Well, hold him down, Sakura and I will figure out something." Sasuke replied. Naruto was way ahead of him, he had already conjured up shadow clones to pin down the man, who was shaking uncontrollably.

Sakura knew she had to help, but she didn't know how. She did what she did best, use the huge brain that rested behind her huge forehead.

She plopped down on the ground, and tried to think of any useful information she might have picked up at the hospital. Mostly there were just forms and documents in her recent memory, but she did remember an advisory warning she had overheard, given to a nurse. The doctor had told the trainee not to flash the light towards Kakashi, that they would have to work in the dark. Apparently, his eye would be super sensitive towards the light, at first.

"NARUTO!" She screeched. "His headband!"

The blonde got the idea, but found that the strap wasn't there. "It isn't here!"

Now it was Sakura's turn to swear.

The pinkette scanned the area, and noticed that Sasuke was nowhere to be found.

She began to rush around looking for it. "Gah! Its not here!" Sakura exclaimed after minutes of searching.

She scanned the area one more time, and just as she was about to give up, a glint of metal caught the corner of her eye. She excitedly leaped toward it,and picked it up. She leaped back to Kakashi and strapped the headband on. He stopped struggling as the darkness overwhelmed him, and put him back into a peaceful state.

Naruto, exhausted, didn't need help to fall asleep. He began snoring seconds after he saw his sensei fall asleep.

"Who knew Kakshi sensei was so hard to beat, even when hes unconscious!" Naruto grumbled in his half asleep state, and Sakura sat down.

Sakura had a few minutes to think before Sasuke returned. For the first time, she had saved a ninjas life. It felt good.

She thought about the effectiveness of the medical jutsu's and such, and she then came to the conclusion, that if they were going to live in a world of peace, the world didn't need brutality and strict rules, but those that could pave the way for others. those that could help, like medical ninja's.

She smiled, right when Sasuke barelled in with the doctor dragging behind. Sasuke's eyes opened when he saw kakshi asleep, and naruto snoring. The doctor smiled. "Ah. I do beleive we have ourselves a hero!" he said, looking directly into Sakura's eyes. The pinkette blushed at such a remark. The doctor did not waste time with flattery, for he was already on his knees performing quick hand signals. Sakura watched as a green glow appeared under the Doctors palm, and the wounds began to dissapear.

"I'm done here." The doctor stated, and leapt into the forest.

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Several hours later, the the team once again was prepared to leave to find their way back home.

"This time, we can avoid danger, eh?" Spoke Kakashi with a soft chuckle.

"Alright, back to Konoha!" Shouted Naruto, and the band of four was off.


	9. Chapter 9

AN- Hey everybody, back again. yet another short chap, but this one just because it was filler, getting everybody to where they needed to be.

Ch10 will come out next thursday, and then we can take our break. Special thanks to the reviewers, you folks made our day.

**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto. Plain truth. **

Chapter Nine.

Naruto awoke with the sunrise, a habit he had made from his early morning training sessions. He smiled, and threw the covers onto the floor, making a pile. The blonde could clean up later, he had some training to do!

He knew he couldn't train with his sensei, he had learned that from the debriefing with Tsunade.

Apparently, Kakashi was out of it, he outright refused to go on missions, eat, sleep, or anything at all until he had mastered the basic use of his mangakyo eye. He would use it, trying first to prepare for the brightness and color of daily life, and when he was accustomed to that, he would try to use it in more unnatural situations, like the blinding light of a katon jutsu. The lazy jounin had requested to use the entire area of training ground fifty seven, he didn't know what the full effect of this eye could bring.

Naruto thought of his other instructor, the perverted hermit. Jiraiya was gone, on a solo mission appointed by himself to investigate Orochimaru, deep in the chasms of the Sound Village. the blonde looked down with shaded eyes, the thought of the third hokage and his death still really hurt, Jiji was his first friend.

The boy shook his head, clearing the depressing thoughts. He still had a few training options, which he considered. He could always ask another jounin or high level chuunin to teach him something, but he doubted that would help. No, that was out of question, he would spent more time arguing than learning, and even when he did, no jounin could teach something on Jiraiya's level, and that's the level he wanted his moves to be.

Naruto walked to the bathroom of his rundown apartment, and discarded his clothes. He turned the faucet for the shower, and stepped into the cold stream. The boy had gotten used to the temperature, hot water was a rarity in the building. besides, his mind was elsewhere.

Naruto thought of the other people he could train with, and Sakura immediately came to mind. He thought of the slightly tighter outfit she wore for physical training like this, and the boy let his mind wonder to her curves moving in rythm to her training exercises.

The shower water cascading down soon mixed with juices from the blondes perverted nosebleed.

'Sakura-chan, definetly.' he thought. He pushed the faucet back with the sole of his foot, and the stream ended abruptly. The orange shinobi stepped out of the tub, still deep in thought.

"Hmm, maybe I should stop by the Uchiha Estate, Sasuke might want to train with the team." Naruto began speaking out load, distracted by his morning ritual of ramen preparing.

It was decided, he would round up the genin of team seven for a sparring session.

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Kakashi stood underneqth a thick tree, using its dark canopy to provide shade for his training. ince he started early that morning, the jounin had accustomed his eye to the shade of the tree, as well as underwater light, which he tested at a pond near the center of the training area.

Now, however, Kakashi walked towards the lighter areas of the forest, with his sharingan active. just to be sure, the jounin held his forehead protecter near his eye, ready at any munute to defend his ultrasensitive sharingan from the suns rays.

Step.

Step.

Step.

Step.

Kakashi kept his eyes peeled on the sght before him, which happened to be just more of the expansive forest, but anyone could see that the trees were becoming few and few apart, and more light shone onto the man's face.

The smut reader closed his eyes, and slapped the metal of his forehead protecter over his eye. That was all he could handle for now, and the man began to edge backwards. Unfortunatly, while in this state, Kakashi couldn't see the tree root jutting out of the ground.

"No! Not again!" Kakashi cried into the lifeless area, on instinct he preformed a backflip to prevent himself from falling. His headgear wasn't so lucky, however, and Kakashi cursed to see the protector had flown in the opposite direction, into one of the lighter areas of the forest.

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Naruto walked easily down the street, towards the Uchiha Resedence. He planned to pick up his dark friend first, Sakura-chan might be more inclined to join if he was present.

He was usually hyped for training, but that was only when he was going to learn something. Here, he would build his muscles, and perhaps improve his chakra control, if Sakura-chan was generous.

Naruto was still so distracted by the thought of a full on training session with his crush, he almost missed the sight before him. The young Uchiha was going the opposite direction, hopping along rooftops.

"Sasuke!" Naruto called.

The other boy heard this, and glanced to see who was squawking. 'Naruto, of course.' Sasuke thought. who else was so loud?

"Naruto, you dobe." Sasuke said, and his orange brother sped up the building that Sasuke stood on.

"Oh, hey Sasuke, I was actually coming to see you."

"Hn."

"Do you want to go train? With me, and hopefully Sakura?"

"I wish I could, but the black ops just stopped by, they want me to go to some kinda meeting. I was lucky to escape being escorted there."

"Ah, that's okay, I suppose. Look us up once you get out of your thing, eh?" Naruto was disappointed, he really wanted to train his taijutsu with an opponent like that.

'Well, off to Sakura's place!' Naruto thought gleefully.

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Kakashi looked downwards concentrated on the grass of the forest, as he inched closer to his forehead protector. closer... closer... he was almost there, when he felt something cool pressed on his head.

"Ah, so this is the mighty and powerful Kakashi. I heard he knew a thousand jutsu, but he doesn't even know how to move!"

Kakashi smirked, and reached back to fasten the forehead protector snugly.

"Guy, who do you think you're fooling? We had the ventriloquist contest years ago."Kakashi said, recognizing the voce of his eternal rival.

"Gah, Kakashi, quit your fooling. We've gotta go, right now." Said the green clad man.

"Oh? Are you sure this isn't some elaborate trick to win another challenge?" Kakashi questioned suspiciously.

"Kakashi, if we don't get moving, hokage-sama will be very angry." Guy said, speaking in a voice he reserved for training, and the occasions where his precious people were in danger.

"Fine. Lets go then."

The duo sped off in the direction of the village arena.

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"Mom?" Sakura's voice echoed through the small house. "Mom?" Once again, louder.

no reply.

Sakura closed the front door with a creak, and turned into the front room, which was dark.

Sakura knew something was up, and began to prowl around the two story building. The pinkettes mother barely ever left the house, due to blindness from a chemical accident when she was young.

Sakura was relived to find a small letter on the table, in her mothers practiced calligraphy.

_Dear Sakura._

_Your father and I will not be present at our residence within this week,_

_as we have been summoned by the hokage to participate in an import-_

_ant meeting, which all clan leaders are to attend. Terribly sorry that we _

_cannot care for you for a while, but you have our permission to reside _

_with any of your friends, and our house is at your service._

_Lovingly,_

_ Mother._

Sakura read the note with a growing smile.

_"_Aha, a week at Ino's!" She said, joyful that she might be able to hang around her best friend for a while.

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"Gah. Gah Gah Gah." Sakura repeated, walking slowly down a Konoha back road. Apparently, Ino's parents were at the meeting as well, and she was throwing a party, so the blonde couldn't have Sakura over. She had gone to see Hinata, but she had gone to the meeting as well, her father opting to take the heir to the hyuuga clan over his wife. Tenten wouldn't have her, Lee was over for the entire week.

"Are those two dating?" were the rumors surrounding the not cold members of team guy, they had seen alot of eachother lately. Most of the talk came from Ino, so Sakura took it lightly.

The pinkette sighed again, that was all of her friends.

Realization hit her. "I'll stay at Sasuke's house!" She proclaimed, knowing that the boy had inherited a huge estate, and might spare a room.

**"Ha. He won't even look at you. If you're going to stay at a boy's house, go to Naruto's. He has room, and wont try ANYTHING." **spoke Inner Sakura, muttering that last part evilly.

"I'll try him right after Sasuke, ok?" Sakura said, trying to compromise with her inner.

**"Fine." **Inner Sakura didn't bother arguing against the pinkettes logic.

"This, this is going to be a great week." Said Sakura, pumped with excitement.


	10. Chapter 10

-Note.- hey guys, its me joey again, and sadly, due to the large amount of homework that was assigned mercilessly to me, jongygy wrote a huge chunk of this chapter for me. I'm sure our millions of loyal fans are crying right now, because we aren't putting another chapter out until January 7th, be assured that chapter 11 will be utterly awesome, or utterly whacked, either of which should improve our ratings. Anyways, have a merry Christmas, and a happy new year!

**Disclaimer- I don't own Naruto, or Sasuke, or, well, anyone else!**

Chapter 10.**  
**

The fifth Hokage waited untill silence had filled the scantily lit room, and then spoke.

"Shimura Danzo, elder of Konoha and supreme commander of ANBU division "Root" has called for an official meeting of the council.

This man has called the meeting, and as such, I expect each one of us to give him our complete attention."

She emphasized the two words "complete attention" looking directly at the lazy leader of team seven. Kakashi gave a weak smile towards Tsunade, at the same time hiding his perverted book underneath the long council table.

Danzo smiled and stood, snaking his way towards the center of the room.

He waited for the right moment to speak, this was going to be a tricky council, and a single word had the potential to make or break his plans.

The room was filled with silence.

The bandaged man began.

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"Saaaaske-kun!"

The high pitched holler was heard across Konoha, but seemed to echo in the raven haired genin's ears.

"What do you want, woman?" Sasuke called out his window, after throwing on a random shirt. Romeo, he was not.

"Well, I don't want to intrude... I mean if you're availa... If you have room... "Sakura struggled to form a proper sentence, blushing at the thought of sleeping anywhere near Sasuke.

Sure, she had been near his sleepig form plenty on missions, but alone like this, who knew what could happen?

Sasuke sighed deeply, and climbed out of the window, dropping smoothly onto his toes.

"Sakura." the boy exhaled. "What is your problem?" The dark genin's tone was harsh and bitter, he planned to set Sakura straight right now. "I'm only going to say this once, so you had better be listening."

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"As you all know from the reports detailing the grounds of this council, we are gathered to review the actions of several Konoha shinobi, based on a series of events that transpired recently."

Nods and murmurs of recognition where heard throughout the room.

"Recently, a certain team of... great value to Konoha, was dispatched into a very dangerous situation, where they were outnumbered greatly, against trained Akatsuki members. Leading the pack of rogues, was none other than Konoha's own Uchiha genius, Uchiha Itachi."

Here, Kakashi butted in. "As the leader of team seven, the team under examination, I can vouch for my students, they were never in danger. Danzo-sama's claim on the skill level for such opponents as the ones faced on the outskirts of Konoha have been gravely exaggerated. we were outnumbered greatly, and yet a three man genin cell crushed the entire force, while i dealt with 'Itachi.' "

Kakashi used the name fluidly, he had fought against the man on several occasions, and this time was different. Perhaps anyone would have brushed it off, but Kakashi was the fourth's student.

Sasuke chimed in. "Two man cell. Sakura and Naruto fought the troops, I was forced to duel Manda."

The room took a collective gasp, all recognizing the name of Orochimaru's reptile friend.

Danzo brushed this off.

"Who was responsible for sending these incompetent imbeciles to almost certain death? None other than our precious hokage, Senju Tsunade."

Certain members of council - the older and more experianced - saw this coming. Danzo had been after the title since the beginning, this was one of his tricks.

The younger generation, however, saw Danzo as a relic of the past, and only knew that he commanded utter respect. Like the third, whatever he said went.

Sasuke, on the other hand, was not impressed with this bullshit, and from the look of it, neither was Kakashi.

Sasuke had more time to train with Kakashi than any of his teammates, Because of the month long period training to do chidori. Because of this, he had seen a few more emotions then any one, and Sasuke could tell when his sensei was peeved.

The older man didn't change an inch in his posture, and Sasuke wouldn't have noticed anything out of place, but the jounin's one visible eye was ecstatic. Kakashi was furious.

Sasuke patiently waited for the Hokage to retort to Danzo's foolish criticizing. He got his wish, not soon after Danzo finished criticizing lady hokage's authority, and the buzz in the room had once again become silent, she stood up quickly, and marched over to Danzo's seat at the long table.

The woman spoke calmly but firmly and said, "Danzo, if I'm a dishonest and foolish Hokage, then tell me, what are you?" "You are a senile old fool, using these backstabbing and heartless tactics to try to gain the title of hokage. Why? to reform our nation, crushing the will of fire and destroying the hope this village has."

Danzo took these insults in stride, but most of the novice council members had been taken back by Tsunade's harsh words.

"So tell me, Danzo? How exactly did you have a sharingan eye, without taking it from a surviving Uchiha?" After a few seconds of silence she added with a smirk, "don't be dishonest, now."

Sasuke's interest was aroused as he looked at the black ops leader for an explanation. Danzo kept a straight face throughout the entire speech, not revealing any emotion. Sasuke couldn't tell what Danzo was thinking, and it bothered him. It was almost the same pose and look his brother gave him often.

Danzo finally spoke. "I'll tell you the truth."

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Sasuke and Sakura sat alone, at one of the stone benches near Konoha's exit. They had walked there slowly, and in silence, Niether genin bothering to say anything to the other.

"Sakura." Sasuke broke the ice with the single word.

"Stop chasing me. I don't love you, that will never change." He exhaled. There was some explaining to do. "Sakura, you are in the middle of your youth, and you can't waste it on something so trivial as a crush."

"But Sasuke, I love..." Sakura began, but was cut off.

"Don't give me that garbage! You don't even know me! I never say more than a word to you, and when I do speak, it's to reject some new confession!"

Sakura remained silent.

"There's people in this village that could help you train, to make something out for your career as a kunoichi! There is a boy, a boy that would do anything for you! You are letting your life slip by, Sakura, and I won't be held responsible just because of a stupid crush."

"I... I..." the pinkette didn't quite know how to reply, but between her own mind and inner Sakura's pestering, she knew he was write. On that day, Haruno Sakura vowed to love Sasuke no longer.

"Alright. I'll let you get back to sleep then. sorry for the trouble." said the pinkette, with a small wave and smile.

As Sasuke slipped back into the Uchiha residence, his eye reflected a yellow slit in the moonlight.

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Note- I dont usually put a note down here, but there is a perfectly good reason why theres two Sasuke's. Merry Christmas!


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